A study on the effect of hydrogen enriched intake air on the characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with ethanol blended diesel
R. Vasanthakumar, M. Loganathan, S. Chockalingam, M. Vikneswaran, M. Manickam
Abstract
This work aims to replace conventional diesel fuel with low and no carbon fuels like ethanol and hydrogen to reduce the harmful emission that causes environmental degradation. Pursuant to this objective, this study investigated the performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of the diesel engine operated on dual fuel mode by ethanol-diesel blends with H 2 enriched intake air at different engine loads with a constant engine speed of 1500 rpm. The results were compared to sole diesel operation with and without H 2 enrichment. The ethanol/diesel was blended in v/v ratios of 5, 10, and 15% and tested in a diesel engine along with a 9 lpm H 2 flow rate at the intake manifold. The results revealed that 10% ethanol with 9 lpm H 2 combination gives the maximum brake thermal efficiency, which is 1% and 4.8% higher than diesel with and without H 2 enrichment, respectively. The brake specific fuel consumption of the diesel-ethanol blends with H 2 flow increased with increasing ethanol ratio in the blend. When the ethanol ratio increased from 5 to 10%, in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate were increased, whereas HC, CO, and NO x emissions were decreased. At maximum load, the CO and HC emission of 10% ethanol blend with 9 lpm H 2 case decreased by about 50% and 28.7% compared to sole diesel. However, NO x emission of the same blend was 11.4% higher than diesel. From the results, the study concludes that 10% ethanol blended diesel with a 9 lpm H 2 flow rate at the intake port is the best dual-fuel mode combination that gives the best engine characteristics with maximum diesel replacement.