Comparison of the performance of a spark-ignited gasoline engine blended with hydrogen and hydrogen–oxygen mixtures

This paper compared the effects of hydrogen and hydrogen–oxygen blends (hydroxygen) additions on the performance of a gasoline engine at 1400 rpm and a manifolds absolute pressure of 61.5 kPa. The tests were carried out on a 1.6 L gasoline engine equipped with a hydrogen and oxygen injection system. A hybrid electronic control unit was applied to adjust the hydrogen and hydroxygen volume fractions in the intake increasing from 0% to about 3% and keep the hydrogen-to-oxygen mole ratio at 2:1 in hydroxygen tests. For each testing condition, the gasoline flow rate was adjusted to maintain the mixture global excess air ratio at 1.00. The test results confirmed that engine fuel energy flow rate was decreased after hydrogen addition but increased with hydroxygen blending. When hydrogen or hydroxygen volume fraction in the intake was lower than 2%, the hydroxygen-blended gasoline engine produced a higher thermal efficiency than the hydrogen-blended gasoline engine. Both the additions of hydrogen and hydroxygen help reduce flame development and propagation periods of the gasoline engine. HC emissions were reduced whereas NOx emissions were raised with the increase of hydrogen and hydroxygen addition levels. CO was slightly increased after hydrogen blending, but reduced with hydroxygen addition.     

Effect of hydrogen addition on the idle performance of a spark ignited gasoline engine at stoichiometric condition

With regard to the improvement of efficiency, combustion stability, and emissions in a gasoline engine at idle condition, an experimental study aimed at improving engine idle performance through hydrogen addition was carried out on a 4-cylinder gasoline-fueled spark ignited (SI) engine. The engine was modified to be fueled with the mixture of gasoline and hydrogen injected into the intake ports simultaneously. A self-developed electronic control unit (DECU) was dedicatedly used to control the injection timings and injection durations of gasoline and hydrogen. Other parameters, such as spark timing and idle valve opening, were controlled by the original engine electronic control unit (OECU). Various hydrogen enrichment levels were selected to investigate the effect of hydrogen addition on engine speed fluctuation, thermal efficiency, combustion characteristics, cyclic variation and emissions under idle and stoichiometric conditions. The experimental results showed that thermal efficiency, combustion performance, NO_x emissions are improved with the increase of hydrogen addition level. The HC and CO emissions first decrease with the increasing hydrogen enrichment level, but when hydrogen energy fraction exceeds 14.44%, it begins to increase again at idle and stoichiometric conditions.     

Effect of hydrogen addition on combustion and emissions performance of a spark ignition gasoline engine at lean conditions

Hydrogen has many excellent combustion properties that can be used for improving combustion and emissions performance of gasoline-fueled spark ignition (SI) engines. In this paper, an experimental study was carried out on a four-cylinder 1.6 L engine to explore the effect of hydrogen addition on enhancing the engine lean operating performance. The engine was modified to realize hydrogen port injection by installing four hydrogen injectors in the intake manifolds. The injection timings and durations of hydrogen and gasoline were governed by a self-developed electronic control unit (DECU) according to the commands from a calibration computer. The engine was run at 1400 rpm, a manifold absolute pressure (MAP) of 61.5 kPa and various excess air ratios. Two hydrogen volume fractions in the total intake of 3% and 6% were applied to check the effect of hydrogen addition fraction on engine combustion. The test results showed that brake thermal efficiency was improved and kept roughly constant in a wide range of excess air ratio after hydrogen addition, the maximum brake thermal efficiency was increased from 26.37% of the original engine to 31.56% of the engine with a 6% hydrogen blending level. However, brake mean effective pressure (Bmep) was decreased by hydrogen addition at stoichiometric conditions, but when the engine was further leaned out Bmep increased with the increase of hydrogen addition fraction. The flame development and propagation durations, cyclic variation, HC and CO₂ emissions were reduced with hydrogen addition. When excess air ratio was approaching stoichiometric conditions, CO emission tended to increase with the addition of hydrogen. However, when the engine was gradually leaned out, CO emission from the hydrogen-enriched engine was lower than the original one. NO_x emissions increased with the increase of hydrogen addition due to the raised cylinder temperature.     

Effects of hydrogen addition and cylinder cutoff on combustion and emissions performance of a spark-ignited gasoline engine under a low operating condition

Because of the low combustion temperature and high throttling loss, SI (spark-ignited) engines always encounter dropped performance at low load conditions. This paper experimentally investigated the co-effect of cylinder cutoff and hydrogen addition on improving the performance of a gasoline-fueled SI engine. The experiment was conducted on a modified four-cylinder SI engine equipped with an electronically controlled hydrogen injection system and a hybrid electronic control unit. The engine was run at 1400 rpm, 34.5 Nm and two cylinder cutoff modes in which one cylinder and two cylinders were closed, respectively. For each cylinder closing strategy, the hydrogen energy fraction in the total fuel (βH₂)$\left({\beta }_{{\text{H}}_2}\right)$ was increased from 0% to approximately 20%. The test results demonstrated that engine indicated thermal efficiency was effectively improved after cylinder cutoff and hydrogen addition, which rose from 34.6% of the original engine to 40.34% of the engine operating at two-cylinder cutoff mode and βH₂=20.41%${\beta }_{{\text{H}}_2}=20.41\%$. Flame development and propagation periods were shortened with the increase of the number of closed cylinders and hydrogen blending ratio. The total cooling loss for all working cylinders, and tailpipe HC (hydrocarbons), CO (carbon monoxide) and CO₂ (carbon dioxide) emissions were reduced whereas tailpipe NO_x (nitrogen oxide) emissions were increased after hydrogen addition and cylinder closing.     

Starting a spark-ignited engine with the gasoline-hydrogen mixture

Because of the increased fuel-film effect and dropped combustion temperature, spark-ignited (SI) gasoline engines always expel large amounts of HC and CO emissions during the cold start period. This paper experimentally investigated the effect of hydrogen addition on improving the cold start performance of a gasoline engine. The test was carried out on a 1.6-L, four-cylinder, SI engine equipped with an electronically controlled hydrogen injection system. A hybrid electronic control unit (HECU) was applied to control the opening and closing of hydrogen and gasoline injectors. Under the same environmental condition, the engine was started with the pure gasoline and gasoline-hydrogen mixture, respectively. After the addition of hydrogen, gasoline injection duration was adjusted to ensure the engine to be started successfully. All cold start experiments were performed at the same ambient, coolant and oil temperatures of 17 °C. The test results showed that cylinder and indicated mean effective pressures in the first cycle were effectively improved with the increase of hydrogen addition fraction. Engine speed in the first 20 start cycles increased with hydrogen blending ratio. However, in later cycles, engine speed varied only a little with and without hydrogen addition due to the adoption of close loop control on engine speed. Because of the low ignition energy and high flame speed of hydrogen, both flame development and propagation durations were shortened after hydrogen addition. HC and CO emissions were dropped markedly after hydrogen addition due to the enhanced combustion process. When the hydrogen flow rate increased from 0 to 2.5 and 4.3 L/min, the instantaneous peak HC emissions were sharply reduced from 57083 to 17850 and 15738 ppm, respectively. NOx emissions were increased in the first 5 s and then reduced later after hydrogen addition.     

Enhancing the performance of a spark-ignition methanol engine with hydrogen addition

This paper investigated the effect of hydrogen addition on enhancing the performance of a methanol engine at part load and lean conditions. The experiment was conducted on a modified spark-ignited engine equipped with an adjustable dual-fuel injection system. The engine was run at an engine speed of 1400 rpm with two hydrogen volume fractions in the intake of 0% and 3%. The test results illustrated that the engine cyclic variation was eased and the brake thermal efficiency was enhanced after the hydrogen blending. Besides, the hydrogen enrichment was effective on reducing the flame development and propagation periods. HC and CO emissions were generally reduced after the hydrogen blending. NOx emissions from the hydrogen-blended methanol engine could be dropped to a low level when the engine was run under high excess air ratios.     

Reducing the idle speed of a spark-ignited gasoline engine with hydrogen addition

Reducing idle speed is an effective way for decreasing engine idle fuel consumption. Unfortunately, due to the increased residual dilution and dropped combustion temperature, spark-ignited (SI) gasoline engines are prone to suffer high cyclic variation and even stall at low idle speeds. This paper investigated the effect of hydrogen addition on the performance of an SI gasoline engine at reduced idle speeds of 600, 700 and 800 rpm. The test results shows that cyclic variation was raised with the decrease of idle speed but reduced obviously with the increase of hydrogen energy fraction (βH₂)$\left({\text{β}}_{{\text{H}}_2}\right)$. Decreasing idle speed and adding hydrogen were effective for reducing engine idle fuel consumption. The total fuel energy flow rate was effectively dropped from 30.8 MJ/h at 800 rpm and βH₂${\text{β}}_{{\text{H}}_2}$ = 0% to 17.6 MJ/h at 600 rpm and βH₂${\text{β}}_{{\text{H}}_2}$ = 19.9%. Because of the dropped fuel energy flow rate causing the reduced combustion temperature, both cooling and exhaust losses were markedly reduced after decreasing idle speed and adding hydrogen. HC and CO emissions were dropped with the increase of βH₂${\text{β}}_{{\text{H}}_2}$, but increased after reducing idle speed. However, NOx emissions were decreased after reducing idle speed and adding hydrogen, due to the dropped peak cylinder temperature.     

Improving the performance of a spark-ignited gasoline engine with the addition of syngas produced by onboard ethanol steaming reforming

Producing the syngas by onboard ethanol steam reforming is an effective way for recovering the exhaust heat in the engine tailpipe. Besides, as hydrogen is contained in the syngas, the addition of syngas is also capable of improving engine combustion and emissions characteristics. In this paper, an experimental study was carried out on a four-cylinder 1.6 L spark-ignited engine to explore the effect of syngas addition on the engine performance. A fuel reforming reactor with the copper based catalysts was designed and mounted on the engine tailpipe, so that the ethanol solution could be decomposed to be syngas which is mainly composed of hydrogen and carbon monoxide when the catalysts were heated by the exhaust gas. The intake manifolds was also modified to permit syngas to be injected into the fourth cylinder of the engine. The engine was run at 1800 rpm and a manifolds absolute pressure of 61.5 kPa. The spark timing for the maximum brake torque was adopted for each testing point. The syngas volume fraction in the total intake gas was gradually increased from 0% to 2.43%. Meanwhile, the gasoline injection duration governing by a hybrid electronic control unit was adjusted to keep the excess air ratio of the fuel-air mixture in the fourth cylinder at about 1.00. The experimental results demonstrated that the syngas volume flow rate was markedly enhanced from 90 to 240 L/h when the feedstock flow rate was increased from 18 to 54 mL/min. The peak ethanol conversion efficiency reached 81.16% at a feedstock flow rate of 36 mL/min. The hydrogen concentration was increased whereas carbon monoxide concentration was decreased in the syngas with the increase of the feedstock supply. The engine indicated thermal efficiency was raised to be 39.01% at the syngas volume fraction of 2.43%. The flame development and propagation durations were shortened; HC and NOx emissions were reduced whereas CO emission was increased after the syngas addition at the stoichiometric condition.     

Improving the combustion performance of a gasoline rotary engine by hydrogen enrichment at various conditions

The combustion process within the cylinder directly influences the thermal efficiency and performance of the engines. As for the rotary engine, the long-narrow combustion chamber prevents the mixture from fully burning, which worsens the performance of the rotary engine. As a fuel with excellent properties, hydrogen can improve the combustion of the original engine. In this paper, improvements in combustion of a gasoline rotary engine by hydrogen supplement under different operating conditions were experimentally investigated. The experiment was conducted on a modified hydrogen-gasoline dual-fuel rotary engine equipped with an electronically-controlled fuel injection system. An electronic control module was specially made to command the fuel injection, excess air ratio and hydrogen volumetric fraction. Integral heat release fraction (IHRF) was employed to evaluate the combustion of the tested engine. The tested engine was first run at the idle speed of 2400 rpm and then operated at 4500 rpm to investigate the combustion of the hydrogen-blended gasoline rotary engine under different hydrogen volume fractions, excess air ratios and spark timings. The testing results demonstrated that the combustion of the gasoline rotary engine were all improved when the hydrogen was blended into the chamber under all tested conditions.     

Effect of syngas addition on performance of a spark-ignited gasoline engine at lean conditions

The paper studied the effect of syngas addition on performance of a gasoline engine at lean conditions. The engine ran at 1800 rpm and a manifolds absolute pressure of 61.5 kPa. The spark timing for the maximum brake torque was adopted for each testing point. The syngas volume fraction in the total intake gas was fixed at 0% and 2.5%. The test results showed that peak cylinder pressure and indicated thermal efficiency were enhanced after the syngas enrichment. Flame development and propagation durations of the 2.5% syngas-blended engine were reduced by 7.2 and 5.7 °CA, compared with those of the original engine at an excess air ratio of 1.36. The coefficient of variation in the indicated mean effective pressure showed a noticeable decrease after the syngas addition. CO and NOx emissions were slightly increased with the syngas enrichment. HC emissions were first reduced and then increased after the syngas blending.     

An experimental investigation of hydrogen-enriched gasoline in a Wankel rotary engine

The Wankel rotary engine is a potential alternative to the reciprocating engine in hybrid applications because of its favorable energy to weight ratio. In this study, a Wankel rotary engine was modified to run on a hydrogen–gasoline blend. Hydrogen enrichment improved the performance of a lean-burn spark-ignition rotary engine operating at high speed and wide open throttle conditions with the original ignition timing, using 0%, %2, 4%, 5%, 7%, and 10% hydrogen energy fractions at the intake. The experimental results showed that adding hydrogen to gasoline in the engine improved the thermal efficiency and the power output. Hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were reduced while nitrogen oxide emissions increased with the increase of hydrogen fraction.     

Analysis of the particulate emissions and combustion performance of a direct injection spark ignition engine using hydrogen and gasoline mixtures

Three different fractions (2%, 5%, and 10% of stoichiometric, or 2.38%, 5.92%, and 11.73% by energy fraction) of hydrogen were aspirated into a gasoline direct injection engine under two different load conditions. The base fuel was 65% iso-octane, and 35% toluene by volume fraction. Ignition sweeps were conducted for each operation point. The pressure traces were recorded for further analysis, and the particulate emission size distributions were measured using a Cambustion DMS500. The results indicated a more stable and faster combustion as more hydrogen was blended. Meanwhile, a substantial reduction in particulate emissions was found at the low load condition (more than 95% reduction either in terms of number concentration or mass concentration when blending 10% hydrogen). Some variation in the results occurred at the high load condition, but the particulate emissions were reduced in most cases, especially for nucleation mode particulate matter. Retarding the ignition timing generally reduced the particulate emissions. An engine model was constructed using the Ricardo WAVE package to assist in understanding the data. The simulation reported a higher residual gas fraction at low load, which explained the higher level of cycle-by-cycle variation at the low load.     

Influence of high compression ratio and hydrogen addition on the performance and emissions of a lean burn spark ignition engine fueled by ethanol-gasoline

This paper investigates the effect of ethanol-gasoline-hydrogen in a lean-burn SI engine with different proportions such as E5, E10, E20, E30, and E40 at compression ratio 10.5:1. The results infer that the E10 blend is the optimized one. Further, E10 mixture investigates for 5% and 10% hydrogen addition on energy basis. Overall, this study establishes that the addition of ethanol enhances brake power by 9% and brake thermal efficiency by about 7%. Hydrogen enrichment to E10 mixture shows a significant enhancement in brake power and brake thermal efficiency at a lower equivalence ratio. Further, it observes that the lean limit had extended to a 0.47 equivalence ratio compared to a 0.5 equivalence ratio with the E10, and 0.54 with pure gasoline. The addition of hydrogen to E10, improves the combustion process and heat release rate while it reduces cycle-by-cycle variations and hydrocarbon emissions.     

Effect of hydrogen addition using on-board alkaline electrolyser on SI engine emissions and combustion

In this study, an electrolyser was used to supply hydrogen to the SI engine. Firstly, the appropriate operation point for the electrolyser was determined by adjusting the amount of KOH in the electrolyte to 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% by mass, and applying 12 V, 16 V, 20 V, 24 V and 28 V voltages. Tests were first carried out with the gasoline without the use of an electrolyser, followed by operating the electrolyser at the appropriate point and sending obtained H₂ and O₂ to the engine in addition to the gasoline. The SI engine was operated between 2500 rpm and 3500 rpm engine speeds with and without hydrogen addition. Cylinder pressure, the amount of gasoline, H₂ and O₂ consumed by the engine and the emission data were collected from the test system at the aforementioned engine speeds. Furthermore, indicated engine torque, indicated specific energy consumption, specific emissions and HRR values were calculated. According to the results obtained, improvement in ISEC values was observed, and CO and THC values were improved by up to 21.3% and 86.1% respectively. Even though the dramatic increase in NO_x emissions cannot be averted, they can be controlled by equipment such as EGR three-way catalytic converter.     

Effects of hydrogen addition on engine performance in a spark ignition engine with a high compression ratio under lean burn conditions

In this study, the effects of hydrogen addition on the engine performance were investigated using spark ignition engine fueled gasoline with a compression ratio of 15 at an air excess ratio (λ) of 1.8 and above. At λ = 1.8, the indicated thermal efficiency at the spark timing of the knock limit reached the maximum level under the conditions in which the hydrogen fraction was set to 4% of the heating value of the total fuel. Based on a heat balance analysis, the best hydrogen fraction was found as a balance between the improvement in the burning efficiency and the increase in heat loss. The lean limit was extended when the hydrogen fraction was increased from λ = 1.80 to λ = 2.28. The hydrogen addition achieved the maximum indicated thermal efficiency at spark timing of the knock limit was obtained at λ = 2.04, where the hydrogen fraction was 10%.     

Effect of hydrogen nanobubble addition on combustion characteristics of gasoline engine

Hydrogen is an attractive energy source for improving gasoline engine performance. In this paper, a new hydrogen nanobubble gasoline blend is introduced, and the influence of hydrogen nanobubble on the combustion characteristics of a gasoline engine is experimentally investigated. The test was performed at a constant engine speed of 2000 rpm, and engine load of 40, 60, and 80%. The air-to-fuel equivalence ratio (λ) was adjusted to the stoichiometric (λ = 1), for both gasoline, and the hydrogen nanobubble gasoline blend. The results show that the mean diameter and concentration of hydrogen nanobubble in the gasoline blend are 149 nm and about 11.35 × 10⁸ particles/ml, respectively. The engine test results show that the power of a gasoline engine with hydrogen nanobubble gasoline blend was improved to 4.0% (27.00 kW), in comparison with conventional gasoline (25.96 kW), at the engine load of 40%. Also, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was improved, from 291.10 g/kWh for the conventional gasoline, to 269.48 g/kWh for the hydrogen nanobubble gasoline blend, at the engine load of 40%.     

Estimating the charge burning velocity within a hydrogen-enriched gasoline engine

This paper proposed a feasible method for estimating the turbulent burning velocity of gasoline/hydrogen blends in a spark-ignited (SI) engine based on the cumulative heat release fraction, engine speed and engine geometry. The experiment was conducted on a naturally-aspirated port-injection gasoline engine equipped with a hydrogen injection system. The engine was run at 1400 rpm with different loads and hydrogen volume fractions in the intake gas. The test results showed that the addition of hydrogen benefited increasing the burning velocity and advancing the relevant crank angle for the peak burning velocity, due to the high burning and diffusion velocities of hydrogen. At 1400 rpm, a manifolds absolute pressure of 61.5 kPa and stoichiometric conditions, the peak burning velocity was raised from 11.6 to 12.3 and 14.6 m/s, and the relevant crank angle for the peak burning velocity was advanced from 21.0 to 14.0 and 8.6 ^oCA when the hydrogen volume fraction in the intake increased from 0% to 3% and 6%, respectively. Moreover, the effect of hydrogen addition on enhancing the burning velocity of a gasoline engine was more pronounced at low loads than that at high loads.     

Effect of hydrogen addition on the performance of a biogas fuelled spark ignition engine

Hydrogen was added in small amounts (5%, 10% and 15% on the energy basis) to biogas and tested in a spark ignition engine at constant speed at different equivalence ratios to study the effects on performance, emissions and combustion. Hydrogen significantly enhances the combustion rate and extends the lean limit of combustion of biogas. There is an improvement in brake thermal efficiency and brake power. However, beyond 15% hydrogen the need to retard the ignition timing to control knock does not lead to improvements at high equivalence ratios. Significant reductions in hydrocarbon levels were seen. There was no increase in nitric oxide emissions due to the use of retarded ignition timing and the presence of carbon dioxide. Peak pressures and heat release rates are lower with hydrogen addition as the ignition timing is to be retarded to avoid knock. There is a reduction in cycle-by-cycle variations in combustion with lean mixtures. On the whole 10% hydrogen addition was found to be the most suitable.     

Reducing the idle speed of a gasoline rotary engine with hydrogen addition

This paper presented an experimental study about the idle performance of a rotary engine fueled with hydrogen and gasoline blends. The idle speed was reduced from original 2400 to 2300 and 2200 rpm, and hydrogen energy percentage (β_H2) was varied from 0% to 35.0%. Test results showed that cyclic variation was raised with the decrease of idle speed whereas reduced with the increase of β_H2. Both decreasing idle speed and increasing β_H2 were effective on reducing engine fuel consumption. Total fuel energy flow rate was effectively dropped from 22.4 MJ/h under “2400 rpm and β_H2 = 0%” to 20.01 MJ/h under “2200 rpm and β_H2 = 35.0%”. Combustion duration was reduced through increasing β_H2. HC and CO emissions were dropped with the increase of β_H2, but increased after reducing idle speed. CO₂ emission was decreased after reducing idle speed and adding hydrogen.     

Efficiency comparison between hydrogen and gasoline,on a bi-fuel hydrogen/gasoline engine

The combustion characteristics of hydrogen compared to gasoline offer the potential of an increased engine efficiency, especially at part load. Here, results are presented of the brake thermal efficiency of a bi-fuel hydrogen/gasoline engine, at several engine speeds and loads. Results on hydrogen are compared to results on gasoline. Hydrogen offers the possibility of a more flexible load control strategy. Where possible, results are compared between the wide open throttle, lean burn strategy and the throttled stoichiometric strategy.