Investigation of hydrogen addition to methanol-gasoline blends in an SI engine

In this study, effects of hydrogen-addition on the performance and emission characteristics of Methanol-Gasoline blends in a spark ignition (SI) engine were investigated. Experiments were conducted with a four-cylinder and four stroke spark ignition engine. Performance tests were performed via measuring brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, cylinder pressure and exhaust emissions (CO, CO₂, HC, NOx). These performance metrics were analyzed under three engine load conditions (no load, 50% and 100%) with a constant speed of 2000 rpm. Methanol was added to the gasoline up to 15% by volume (5%, 10% and 15%). Besides, hydrogen was added to methanol-gasoline mixtures up to 15% by volume (3%, 6%, 9% and 15%). Results of this study showed that methanol addition increases BSFC by 26% and decreases thermal efficiency by 10.5% compared to the gasoline. By adding hydrogen to the methanol - gasoline mixtures, the BSFC decreased by 4% and the thermal efficiency increased by 2% compared to the gasoline. Hydrogen addition to methanol – gasoline mixtures reduces exhaust emissions by about 16%, 75% and 15% of the mean average values of HC, CO and CO2 emissions, respectively. Lastly, ?t was concluded that hydrogen addition improves combustion process; CO and HC emissions reduce as a result of the leaning effect caused by the methanol addition; and CO2 and NOx emission increases because of the improved combustion.     

Experimental research on a blended hydrogen-fuel engine

An experimental study on the performance of a single cylinder engine fueled with hydrogen/gas fule blends was carried out. The performance of engine with different fuel components under the load characteristics of the engine was analyzed. The experimental results showed that with the increase of hydrogen blending ratio, the combustion speed was accelerated, and the maximum torque and maximum pressure in the cylinder were increased; The maximum torque of blended fuel with 40% CO₂ was 68.3% of that without CO₂; The maximum pressure in cylinder of blended fuel with 40% H₂ was 1.6 times higher than that without hydrogen; When the proportion of hydrogen was more than 30%, the torque decreased; When the mixture was blended with 30% N₂, the engine torque reached the maximum at the hydrogen ratio of 15%; With the increase of hydrogen blending ratio, the emission of CO increased and the emission of HC and NOx decreased; When the hydrogen blending ratio remained unchanged, the CO emission was the largest at medium load, the HC emission was the largest at small load, and the NOx emission was the largest at high load; When the mixture was blended with 15% H₂, with the increase of the proportion of nitrogen, emission of CO decreased, emissions of HC and NOx increased. The research of this paper provided an experimental basis for the design and development of gas fuel engines.     

Experimental study of combustion performances and emissions of a spark ignition cogeneration engine operating in lean conditions using different fuels

This work presents an experimental study describing a six-cylinder spark ignition engine running with a lean equivalence ratio, high compression ratio, ignition delay and used in a cogeneration system (heat and electricity production). Three types of fuels; natural gas, pure methane and methane/hydrogen blend (85% CH₄ and 15% H₂ by volume), were used for comparison purposes. Each fuel has been investigated at 1500 rpm and for various engine loads fixed by electrical power output conditions. CO, CO₂, HC, and NOx emissions values, and exhaust gas temperature were measured. The effect of fuel composition on engine characteristics has been studied. The results show, that the hydrogen addition increased HC emissions (around 18%), as well as performance, whilst it reduced NO_x (around 31%), exhaust gas temperature, CO and CO₂.     

Separate and combined effects of hydrogen and nitrogen additions on diesel engine combustion

Shortage of non-renewable energies, increase in fossil fuel prices and stricter emissions regulations due to high NOx and soot emissions emitted from combustion of heavy diesel fuels by compression ignition engines, has led consumers to use renewable, cleaner and cheap fuels. An investigation has been computationally carried out to explore the influences of hydrogen and nitrogen addition on engine performance such as indicated power and indicated specific energy consumption and amounts of pollutant emissions like NOx, soot, and CO in an HSDI (High-Speed Direct Injection) diesel engine. Optimized sub-models, such as turbulence model, spray model, combustion model and emissions models have selected for the main CFD code. Meanwhile, HF (Homogeneity Factor) has been employed for analysing in-cylinder air-fuel mixing quality under various addition conditions. After validations with experimental data of diesel combustion with a single addition of 4% hydrogen and combined addition of 6% hydrogen + 6% nitrogen, investigations have conducted for modeling mixing and combustion processes with additions of hydrogen and nitrogen by ranges of 2–8% (v/v). Results showed that a single addition of H₂ increased NOx and decreased CO and soot and improved ISEC and IP. In the case of nitrogen addition, NOx decreased, both CO and soot emission increased and ISEC and IP considerably ruined compared with NDC operation. Based on the results obtained for simultaneous addition of N₂ (8% of v/v) and H₂ (8% of v/v), NOx and soot emissions decreased by 11.5% and 42.5% respectively, and ISEC and IP improved 25.7% and 13%, respectively. But amount of CO emissions had an increase of 52% should be paid necessary attention as a main disadvantage.     

Investigation on combustion and emissions characteristics of a hydrogen-blended n-butanol rotary engine

In this paper, a rotary engine equipped with an n-butanol and hydrogen port-injection system was developed to investigate the combustion and emissions characteristics of a hydrogen-blended n-butanol rotary engine at part load and stoichiometric conditions. A self-developed hybrid electronic control unit was adopted to adjust the injection durations of n-butanol and hydrogen. The rotary engine was run under the conditions of 4000 rpm, a manifold absolute pressure of 35 kPa and a fixed spark timing of 45 °CA before the top dead center during the whole testing operation. The hydrogen volumetric fraction in the total intake was varied from 0% to 6.30%. The test results manifested that the brake thermal efficiency and chamber temperature were simultaneously increased with hydrogen addition. The hydrogen supplement obviously shortened flame development and propagation periods. Both chamber pressure integral heat release fraction versus crank angle were increased when the hydrogen fraction was enhanced. HC emissions were reduced by 54.5% when hydrogen volume fraction was raised from 0% to 6.30%, CO and CO₂ emissions were also reduced after increasing hydrogen blending fraction. NOx emissions were mildly elevated due to the improved chamber temperature.     

Flameless combustion for hydrogen containing fuels

In this paper, flameless combustion was promoted to suppress thermal-NO_x formation in the hydrogen-high-containing fuel combustion. The PSRN model was used to model the flameless combustion in the air for four fuels: H₂/CH₄ 60/40% (by volume), H₂/CH₄ 40/60%, H₂/CH₄ 20/80% and pure hydrogen. The results show that the NO_x emissions below 30 ppmv while CO emissions are under 50 ppmv, which are coincident with the experimental data in the “clean flameless combustion” regime for all the four fuels. The simulation also reveals that CO decreases from 48 ppmv to nearly zero when the hydrogen composition varies from 40% to 100%, but the NO_x emission is not sensitive to the hydrogen composition. In the highly diluted case, the NO_x and CO emissions do not depend on the entrainment ratio.     

An experimental study of mild flameless combustion of methane/hydrogen mixtures

This paper presents an experimental study of mild flameless combustion regime applied to methane/hydrogen mixtures in a laboratory-scale pilot furnace with or without air preheating. Results show that mild flameless combustion regime is achieved from pure methane to pure hydrogen whatever the CH₄/H₂ proportion. The main reaction zone remains lifted from the burner exit, in the mixing layer of fuel and air jets ensuring a large dilution correlated to low NOx emissions whereas CO₂ concentrations obviously decrease with hydrogen proportion. A decrease of NOx emissions is measured for larger quantity of hydrogen due mainly to the decrease of prompt NO formation. Without air preheating, a slight increase of the excess air ratio is required to control CO emissions. For pure hydrogen fuel without air preheating, mild flameless combustion regime leads to operating conditions close to a "zero emission furnace", with ultra-low NOx emissions and without any carbonated species emissions.     

A compilation of operability and emissions performance of residential water heaters operated on blends of natural gas and hydrogen including consideration for reporting bases

The impact of hydrogen added to natural gas on the performance of commercial domestic water heating devices has been discussed in several recent papers in the literature. Much of the work focuses on performance at specific hydrogen levels (by volume) up to 20–30% as a near term blend target. In the current work, new data on several commercial devices have been obtained to help quantify upper limits based on flashback limits. In addition, results from 39 individual devices are compiled to help generalize observations regarding performance. The emphasis of this work is on emissions performance and especially NOx emissions. It is important to consider the reporting bases of the emissions numbers to avoid any unitended bias. For water heaters, the trends associated with both mass per fuel energy input and concentration-based representation are similar For carbon free fuels, bases such as 12% CO2 should be avoided. In general, the compiled data shows that NOx, NO, UHC, and CO levels decrease with increasing hydrogen percentage. The % decrease in NOx and NO is greater for low NOx devices (meaning certified to NOx <10 ng/J using premixing with excess air) compared to conventional devices (“pancake burners”, partial premixing). Further, low NOx devices appear to be able to accept greater amounts of hydrogen, above 70% hydrogen in some cases, without modification, while conventional water heaters appear limited to 40–50% hydrogen. Reporting emissions on a mass basis per unit fuel energy input is preferred to the typical dry concentration basis as the greater amount of water produced by hydrogen results in a perceived increase in NOx when hydrogen is used. While this effort summarizes emissions performance with added hydrogen, additional work is needed on transient operation, higher levels of hydrogen, system durability/reliability, and heating efficiency.     

Hydrogen enriched waste oil biodiesel usage in compression ignition engine

In the present study, hydrogen enrichment for biodiesel-diesel blends was evaluated to investigate the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine. Biodiesel was obtained from waste oil and blended to pure diesel fuel by volume fraction of 0%, 10% and 20%. After that, pure hydrogen was introduced through the intake air at different flow rates. Effects of pure hydrogen on performance and emission characteristics were investigated by evaluating power, torque, specific fuel consumption, CO, CO₂ and NO_x emissions. Experimental study revealed that waste oil biodiesel usage deteriorated performance and emission parameters except CO emissions. However, the enrichment test fuels with hydrogen fuel can improve performance characteristics and emission parameters, whereas it increased NO_x emissions. Brake thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption were improved when the test fuels enriched with hydrogen gas. Because of absence of carbon atoms in the chemical structure of the hydrogen fuel, hydrogen addition dropped CO and CO₂ emissions but increment in cylinder temperature caused rising in NO_x emissions.     

Incorporating in-cylinder pressure data to predict NOx emissions from spark-ignition engines fueled with landfill gas/hydrogen mixtures

A 0.745 L 2-cylinder spark-ignition engine was operated with compressed natural gas and with simulated landfill gas (60% CH₄ and 40% CO₂ by volume) containing hydrogen concentrations of 0, 30%, 40%, and 50% (by volume of the CH₄ in the fuel) at constant rpm. This empirical data was compared with predictions from three existing semi-empirical engine models, using a first-law-based finite heat release model to correlate measured in-cylinder pressure data and burn rate for each fuel mixture. Of the three models only a two zone model incorporating thermal and prompt NO_x came within 25% of predicting the measured NO_x emissions.     

Experimental analysis of the effects of hydrogen addition on methane combustion

This paper presents gas emissions from turbulent chemical flow inside a model combustor, for different blending ratios of hydrogen–methane composite fuels. Gas emissions such as CO and O₂ from the combustion reaction were obtained using a gas analyzer. NOx emissions were measured with a NOx analyzer. The previously obtained flame temperature distributions were also presented. As the amount of hydrogen in the mixture increases, more hydrogen is involved in the combustion reaction, and more heat is released, and the higher temperature levels are resulted. The results have shown that the combustion efficiency increases and CO emission decreases when the hydrogen content is increased in blending fuel. It is also shown that the hydrogen–methane blending fuels are efficiently used without any important modification in the natural gas burner. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

天然气掺氢发动机的性能研究

以台架试验的方法,对不同负荷与点火提前角下天然气掺氢发动机的经济性和排放特性进行了研究,试验中使用了掺氢比为0%～40%的天然气掺氢混合燃料。试验结果表明,随着掺氢比的增加,燃气消耗率呈降低趋势,发动机的经济性得到明显的改善;在不同负荷下,随着掺氢比的增加,NOx与CO的排放都呈增加趋势,CH4的排放呈降低趋势。掺氢比一定时,随着点火提前角和掺氢比的增加,NOx、CH4与CO排放都呈增加趋势,优化点火提前角可以改善天然气发动机的排放。     

Stabilization regimes and pollutant emissions from a dual fuel CH4/H2 and dual swirl low NOx burner

Burning hydrogen in gas turbines is a relevant technological solution to decarbonize power production and propulsion systems. However, ensuring low NOx emission and preventing flashback can be challenging with hydrogen. Stabilization regimes and pollutant emissions from partially premixed CH₄/H₂/air flames above a coaxial Dual Fuel Dual Swirl injector are investigated in a laboratory-scale combustor at atmospheric conditions for increasing hydrogen contents. The injector consists of an external annular swirler providing premixed methane/air and a central channel fed with pure hydrogen. This burner virtually removes the risk of flashback due to the late injection of hydrogen. Flame stabilization regimes, CO and NOx emissions are analyzed for different configurations of the injector and operating points. The effect of swirling the hydrogen stream is investigated together with the influence of the hydrogen injector recess, i.e. its nozzle position with respect to the backplane of the combustion chamber. It is shown that swirling the central hydrogen stream favors aerodynamically stabilized flames resulting in a low thermal stress on the injector and limited NOx emissions. The study also highlights that a small recess of the central hydrogen injector widely extends the operability range of the burner with aerodynamically stabilized flames. With a sufficient inner swirl and a small recess, flames detach from the injector rim when the hydrogen bulk velocity is large enough. In this configuration, it is found that NOx emissions remain low even for operation with pure hydrogen. Moreover, NOx emissions decrease when increasing the thermal power for a fixed equivalence ratio.     

Synergistic effect of hydrogen and waste lubricating oil on the performance and emissions of a compression ignition engine

The demand for energy is increasing every year. For a long time, fossil fuels have been used to satiate this energy demand. However, using hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels has led to an enormous rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere resulting in global warming. It is therefore necessary to look for alternatives to fossil fuels. The research carried out till date have shown biomass and waste-derived fuels as plausible alternatives to fossil fuels. The biomass feedstock includes jatropha oil, Karanja oil, cottonseed oil, and hemp oil among others and wastes include used cooking oil, used engine oil, used tire and used plastics etc. In this study, the authors aim to explore waste lubrication oil as a fuel for the diesel engine. The used lubrication oil was pyrolyzed and diesel-like fuel with 80% conversion efficiency was obtained. A blend of the fuel and diesel in the ratio of 80:20 on volume basis was prepared. Engine experiments at various load conditions was carried out with the blend. As compared to diesel, a 2% increase in thermal efficiency, 6.3%, 16.1% and 13.6% decrease in smoke, CO and HC emissions & 3.2% and 1.8% increase in NOx and CO₂ emission were observed at full load with the blend. With an aim to further improve the engine performance and reduce the overall emissions from the engine exhaust, a zero-carbon fuel namely gaseous hydrogen was inducted in the intake manifold. The flow rate of hydrogen was varied from 3 to 12 Litres per minute (LPM). As compared to diesel, at maximum hydrogen flow rate the thermal efficiency increased by 12.2%. HC, CO and smoke emissions decreased by 42.4%, 51.6% and 16.8%, whereas NOx emissions increased by 22%. The study shows that the combination of pyrolyzed waste lubricant and hydrogen were found to be suitable as a fuel for an unmodified diesel engine. Such fuel combination can be used for stationary applications such as power backups.     

Experimental study of the combustion of natural gas and high-hydrogen content syngases in a radiant porous media burner

The primary objective of this work is to study the blending of natural gas in equimolar proportions with three high hydrogen content syngases in a radiant porous media burner. We examined the effects of the composition of the syngases, the fuel-to-air ratio and the thermal input on the flame stability, the radiation efficiency and the pollutant emissions (CO and NOx). In this study, we emulated the syngases with H₂–CO mixtures, in which the H₂ to CO ratio was varied between 1.5 and 3. Additionally, pure natural gas was also used as a base fuel for comparison. The thermal inputs evaluated in this study correspond to two values (300 and 500 kW/m2) found in practical applications. The results indicate that the thermal input and the fuel-to-air ratio significantly influenced the temperature profile in the radiant porous media burner, the radiation efficiency, and the pollutant emissions. On the other hand, contrary to what was observed in other studies for lower hydrogen concentrations, we found that substituting natural gas with high hydrogen content syngases (up to 50%) affected the flame stability limits. Significant differences were also observed for the radiation efficiencies and pollutant emissions.     

Enhancing the NO2/NOx ratio in compression ignition engines by hydrogen and reformate combustion,for improved aftertreatment performance

Enhanced NO₂ production (without raising total NOx) in a diesel engine combustion chamber can improve the performance of several catalytic aftertreatment systems. Thus this can facilitate a further reduction in key regulated emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. The oxidation of NO to NO₂ is an important intermediate step involved in all current aftertreatment systems that are designed for NOx and PM catalytic removal. The performance of both NOx control systems and catalysed particulate filters depend highly on the NO₂ concentration. In this work we have examined the influence of using hydrogen (H₂) and simulated reformate (H₂, CO and EGR gases) as a supplement to diesel fuel on NO₂ production. In actual engine applications a reformer will be integrated within the engine EGR system. This will not only provide the engine with recirculated exhaust gas (i.e. EGR), but will enrich it with H₂ and CO.     

Performance enhancement of ammonia-fueled engine by using dissociation catalyst for hydrogen generation

The effect of combustion of hydrogen generated by an ammonia dissociation catalyst on engine performance and exhaust emissions in a spark-ignition engine using ammonia-gasoline was investigated. An ammonia dissociation catalyst coated with 2% ruthenium on 3.175-mm alumina pellets were used in order to analyze the effect of the catalyst as an ammonia cracker to decompose ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen. Results show that combustion of hydrogen generated by an ammonia dissociation catalyst resulted in improved engine performance and reduced exhaust emissions. The conversion rate of ammonia into hydrogen was affected by the flow rate of ammonia, and the catalyst was very effective at low to medium flow rates, resulting in significantly increased engine power and decreased fuel consumption. With the use of the catalyst, emissions of CO, HC, NH₃ and NOx were reduced considerably. Overall, it was demonstrated the ammonia dissociation catalyst can enable ammonia to be used as a hydrogen carrier for use in internal combustion engines effectively.     

Computational analysis of an HCCI engine fuelled with hydrogen/hydrogen peroxide blends

In the current work, Chemkin Pro's HCCI numerical model is used in order to explore the feasibility of using hydrogen in a dual fuel concept where hydrogen peroxide acts as ignition promoter. The analysis focuses on the engine performance characteristics, the combustion phasing and NOx emissions. It is shown that the use of hydrogen/hydrogen peroxide at extremely fuel lean conditions (φ_eff = 0.1 ? 0.4) results in significantly better performance characteristics (up to 60% increase of IMEP and 80% decrease of NOx) compared to the case of a preheated hydrogen/air mixture that aims to simulate the use of a glow plug. It is also shown that the addition of H₂O₂ up to 10% (per fuel volume) increases significantly the IMEP, power, torque, thermal efficiency (reaching values more than 60%) while also decreasing remarkably NOx emissions which will not require any exhaust after-treatment, for all engine speeds. The results presented herein are novel and promising, yet further research is required to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology.     

Experimental investigation of the flame characteristics of a fuel mixture with high hydrogen content enriched with oxygen under the externally acoustic enforcement conditions

Pollutant emissions are one of the major problems for the World. In this regard, researchers focus on the studies on emission reduction. Hydrogen is an alternative solution for this problem. Hydrogen produces only water as a result of combustion with oxygen. Therefore, this study examines the combustion stability and emissions of a high hydrogen content fuel mixture. The fuel mixture containing 45% H₂ by volume was supported with 5% CH₄ in order to provide stable combustion. In addition, in order to reduce the instabilities caused by the high laminar burning rate of hydrogen, it was diluted with 50% CO₂ which equal volume with the fuel mixture. After the fuel mixture containing 45% H₂ - 5% CH₄ - 50% CO₂ was burned with air containing 21% O₂, enrichment was applied at the rates of 24% and 27% O₂. The flame that contains different oxygen ratios was acoustically forced through the speakers around the combustion chamber. The stability data, dynamic pressure, and light intensity fluctuation of the flame were recorded under different acoustic resonance frequencies (110 Hz, 190 Hz, 260 Hz). In this way, the oxygen enrichment performance and flame characteristics of hydrogen in a premixed burner, which is promising in zero-emission studies, were investigated. As a result, when the combustion condition of 21% O₂ and 24% O₂ ratios are compared, the instability increased slightly from 801 Pa to 887 Pa, respectively. However, at 27% O₂, the flame could not perform a stable combustion under acoustic enforcement. The flame flashbacked with a dynamic pressure fluctuation of 1577 Pa under an acoustic frequency of 110 Hz. In addition, it was observed that CO emissions have decreased with the increase in oxygen enrichment rate. CO emission measured at 1080 ppm at 21% O₂ decreased to 542 ppm and 276 ppm respectively at 24% and 27% oxygen enrichment levels. While NOx emission was measured at 10 ppm in the case of combustion with air, it was observed that decreased to 4 ppm at the rate of 27% O₂.     

Hydrogen effects on the diesel engine performance and emissions

In this research, effects of hydrogen addition on a diesel engine were investigated in terms of engine performance and emissions for four cylinders, water cooled diesel engine. Hydrogen was added through the intake port of the diesel engine. Hydrogen effects on the diesel engine were investigated with different amount (0.20, 0.40, 0.60 and 0.80 lpm) at different engine load (20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% load) and the constant speed, 1800 rpm. When hydrogen amount is increased for all engine loads, it is observed an increase in brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency due to mixture formation and higher flame speed of hydrogen gas according to the results. For the 0.80 lpm hydrogen addition, exhaust temperature and NOx increased at higher loads. CO, UHC and SOOT emissions significantly decreased for hydrogen gas as additional fuel at all loads. In this study, higher decrease on SOOT emissions (up to 0.80lpm) was obtained. In addition, for 0.80 lpm hydrogen addition, the dramatic increase in NOx emissions was observed.