Comparative Study of Emissions and Performance of Hydrogen Boosted SI Engine Powered by Gasoline Methanol Blend and Gasoline Ethanol Blend 2015-01-1677

Increased dependency on fossil fuels has led to its depletion as well as affected the environment adversely. Moreover, increasing crude oil prices is pressurizing vehicle manufacturers to invent new technology so as to increase fuel economy and at the same time to keep emissions under control. Hydrogen has gained popularity not just in terms of being an abundant alternative but also due to being a very clean propellant. In the present investigation, hydrogen boosting has been performed on an SI engine running on gasoline-methanol and ethanol-gasoline blends to determine the additional advantages of the same compared to pure gasoline operation. The engine selected for experimental analysis is a single cylinder, air cooled spark ignition engine that has been modified for hydrogen injection in the intake manifold prior to the port with the injection timing being held constant throughout the experiment. The selection of fuels was made according to the individual advantages that these alcohols offer on blending and the effect of hydrogen addition on the parameters is reported. Parameters such as brake power, Brake Thermal Efficiency and emissions were compared for both methanol and ethanol with hydrogen boosting. With hydrogen enrichment E10 was found to have lower UHC and CO emissions as well as higher BTE specifically at higher loads as compared to M10 although NOx concentration was increased for both the fuels drastically.