Experimental Investigation on Performance and Emission Characteristics of DI Diesel Engine with Hydrogen Fuel 2007-26-030

The internal combustion engines, have already, become an indispensable and integral part of our present day life style, particularly in the transportation and agricultural sectors. Unfortunately the survival of these engines has, of late, been threatened due to the problems of fuel crisis and environmental pollution. Therefore, to sustain the present growth rate of civilization, a non-depletable, clean fuel must be expeditiously sought. Hydrogen exactly caters to the specified needs. Hydrogen, even though “Renewable” and “clean burning”, does give rise to some undesirable combustion problems in an engine operation, such as backfire, pre-ignition, knocking and rapid rate of pressure rise. The present investigation compares the performance and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine with gaseous Hydrogen as a fuel inducted by means of Carburation and Timed Port Injection (TPI) techniques along with diesel as a source of ignition. The specific energy consumption, NO_x emission and the exhaust gas temperature increased by 6%, 8%, 14% respectively and Brake thermal efficiency and smoke level reduced by 5% and 8% respectively using carburation technique compared to baseline diesel. But in the TPI, the specific energy consumption, exhaust gas temperature and smoke level reduced by 15%, 45% and 18% respectively. The Brake thermal efficiency and NO_x increased by 17% and 34% respectively compared to diesel. The emissions such as HC, CO and CO₂ are low in both the techniques as compared to diesel.