On reducing the emissions of CO, HC, and NOx from gasoline blended with hydrogen peroxide and ethanol: Optimization study aided with ANN-PSO

Abstract

The use of ethanol blending for gasoline has been found to have a significant effect in reducing emissions without any loss in the performance of a spark ignition engine. However, an increase in the emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) may be seen due to the increased oxygen content in the fuel. On the contrary, emulsifying fuel with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has shown a substantial effect in reducing all the emissions, including NOx in a compression ignition (CI) engine. In this study, 10% ethanol is blended with gasoline (E10) and further emulsified with H2O2 up to 1.5%. When compared to neat gasoline, a 4.8% increase in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) is obtained with 10% ethanol and 1.5% H2O2. The corresponding average decrease in the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and NOx were 80%, 43%, and 17%, respectively. The results of the experimental trials are used to model an artificial neural network (ANN) to derive a relationship between the input factors of ethanol concentration, H2O2 concentration, and engine speeds with the output responses of BTE, CO, HC, and NOx. The ANN models of each response are optimized using a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (PSO) for maximizing BTE and minimizing emissions of CO, HC, and NOx. The PSO results showed that operating the engine at 2000 rpm using ethanol blending between 4 and 6% and H2O2 emulsification of 1.5% are the best optimal conditions.