Experimental Study of HCNG on Single Cylinder 395cc Spark Ignition Engine for Performance and Exhaust Emission.

There is growing demand for energy utilization due to stricter environmental emission norms to reduce greenhouse gases and other threats posed due to the emissions are major motivation factors for researchers to adopt on strategic plans to decrease the usage of energy and reduce the carbon contents of fuels, the usage of hydrogen or blend of hydrogen with CNG as a fuel in internal combustion engines is the best option. As hydrogen has lower volumetric energy density and higher combustion temperature, pure hydrogen-fueled engines produce lower power output and much higher NOx emissions than gasoline-fueled engine at stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Blending of hydrogen with CNG provides a blended gas termed as hydrogen-enriched natural gas (HCNG). HCNG stands for hydrogen enriched compressed natural gas and it combines the advantages of both hydrogen and methane. The addition of Hydrogen to CNG has potential to even lower the CNG emissions and is the first step towards promotion of a Hydrogen economy. HCNG allows customers early hydrogen deployment with nearly commercial technology. Spark ignition Engines can be calibrated for lower NOx and greenhouse gas emissions. Spark ignition engine is compatible to run on HCNG with minimum modifications. In the present study 395cc water cooled spark ignition engine with port fuel injection system was used to explore CNG and HCNG fuel with 18% Hydrogen in CNG for comparing engine performance and effective way to reduce emissions. A series of experiments were carried out on engine test dynamometer also on vehicle chassis dynamometer on 3-wheeler vehicle with different compression ratio, spark energy, ignition timing, operating lambda. Hydrogen to CNG as a fuel in SI engines has shown significant positive impact on efficiency with lean lambda limits. With 18% Hydrogen in CNG makes it possible to run the engine leaner, resulting in lower emissions of CO2, CO, HC and NOx emissions. Experimental study infers emissions reduction on Indian driving cycle and CO2 along with the reduction of fuel consumption on vehicle driving cycle with wider spectrum of lambda, spark advance, compression ratio and percentage of hydrogen in the blends. Spark ignition engine on three-wheel vehicle met BS6 OBD II B emission with margin of 56% for CO, 53% for NOx, 54% for HC+NOx with 18% Hydrogen in CNG fuel. Finally, it has been said that HCNG fuels pave the road for the use of hydrogen vehicles in the future due to expensive after treatment technologies.