Hydrogen in Spark Ignition Engines

Abstract

In the present world, there is a huge demand for spark ignition (SI) engines in transportation sector as there is an increase in population of light commercial vehicles such as motorcycles and cars. Petrol powered SI engine produces less noise and vibration with high thermal efficiency as compared with diesel engines. Utilization of hydrogen as fuel in SI engines has found to improve the combustion and performance characteristics of engines. The primary fuel petrol and secondary fuel hydrogen are induced in the inlet manifold. The various percentage of hydrogen used in the SI engines include 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25%, together with different ratios of petrol fuel. Whenever hydrogen induced in the SI or compression ignition (CI) engines for safety purpose a flame arrester is used. This current was assessed to calculate the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a high-speed single cylinder SI engine operating with different hydrogen–petrol blends. The various percentage of hydrogen was inducted along with petrol fuel to reduce the tailpipe emissions. The hydrogen was mixed with base fuels such as P95H5 (95% petrol, 5% of hydrogen), P90H10 (90% petrol, 10% of hydrogen), P85H15 (85% petrol, 15% of hydrogen), P80H20 (80% petrol, 20% of hydrogen) and P75H25 (75% petrol, 25% of hydrogen). About 20% of hydrogen blend showed greater brake thermal efficiency of 26.8% when compared with base fuel. Furthermore, 25% of hydrogen mixed with petrol drastically reduced the hydrocarbon content, carbon monoxide content and exhaust gas temperature petrol by 22.8%, 40.26% and 15.61%, respectively, when compared with base fuel at full load condition.KeywordsHydrogenPetrolHydrocarbonBrake thermal efficiencyCarbonmonoxide