An investigation on emissions analysis of spark plug engine fueled by producer gas generated by L. camera

Abstract

Producer gas is a promising alternative fuel to fulfill energy demand in the developed countries like India which can be produced from solid waste biomass or coal through the thermo-chemical conversion route. Producer gas can be employed for fueling a spark ignition (SI) engine or compression ignition (CI) engine. Gasification of biomass is gaining interest as green energy technology nowadays and holds a large promise for the future.In the present investigation, the gasification ofLantana camera (L. camera)biomass is carried out in a downdraft gasifier and the results showed that syngas (producer gas) contains about 20–22% CO, 18–20% hydrogen, 3–5% CO2, 1–4% CH4 and rest nitrogen with the higher heating value of 5.9–7 MJ/Nm3. In addition, a single cylinder 4 S petrol engine (2.3 kW) is fueled with this producer gas at compression ratio (CR) 11. The results showed that the brake thermal efficiency of the engine with producer gas is 27% at a higher load in comparison to petrol fuel (BTE-28%). The engine exhaust, (CO), (NOx), (CO2), and HC are found to be decreased significantly when compared to petrol, biogas or LPG. Finally, it can be concluded that L. camera gasification resulted into cleaner and alternative fuel for small power generating units supporting sustainable development.