Feasibility Establishment With On Board Generated Hydrogen Supplementation and Studies on Emission Characteristics of Gasoline Engine

Abstract

In present times, the automotive industry is dealing with two major problems. The quest for a substitute fuel that could reduce the burden on currently used petroleum products is one these problems. Secondly, it is the rigorous norms relating to tail pipe emission due to increasing carbon footprints. Worldwide research is being conducted to find a fuel that could solve both these problem simultaneously. The experimental research presented in this paper proposes a step to find one such good fuel. One of the resources abundantly present on the earth is water. There are many ways in which we can harness energy from it. In this experimental study, electrolysis is used to extract Hydrogen/HHO from distilled water and used as a supplementary fuel to run a 4 stroke SI engine of a motorbike. Subsequently, its feasibility analysis and emission trends have also been studied. The distinguishing feature of this study is that no modifications were required at engine level to carry out this test. The addition of HHO is known to increase the octane rating of any fuel being currently used in automobiles. This phenomenon leads to more power generation using same amount of fuel thus increasing fuel efficiency. It was found that fuel consumption reduced by almost 25% depending on the ratio of hydrogen to gasoline being used in combustion chamber. Emission levels were also reduced drastically, amounting to a reduction of 38% in HC and approximately 50% in NOX.