Parametric optimisation and performance evaluation of gasifier-CI engine on dual fuel and dual feed material gasification

Abstract

Gasification-based energy derived is one of the appealing resources for producing heat and power generation. The objective of this paper is to conduct an experimental study on downdraft air co-gasification of Madhuca longifolia wood and Indian low-grade coal (50:50 wt %) to generate producer gas and its application in dual-fuelled mode CI engine. Besides, the optimisation using the response surface methodology (RSM) has been applied to Gasifier-Engine to determine the best engine performance and emission response by optimising the input variables, i.e. gasifier equivalence ratio, engine compression ratio, and engine load. The RSM-based analysis predicted that optimum input operating parameters could be attained for co-gasification for Equivalence ratio (ER), compression ratio (CR), and engine load (EL) at 0.43, 16, and 100%, respectively. Based on optimal input variables, the performance response values of the gasifier-engine are 29.52% Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), 3.30 kW Brake power (BP), 0.3851 kg/kWh Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), 0.0186 vol% CO, 0.958 ppm UHC, 0.9768 vol % CO2, and 109.415 ppm NOx. The results show that the projected regression model has a high accuracy of R2 > 90% and a high correlation coefficient of 0.8927.