Performance of single cylinder diesel engine using triple fuel HSD-LPG-Steam

Abstract

Fuel system modification techniques to improve engine efficiency could be the way to slow down the energy crisis caused by the lack of new fuel inventions. The Compression Ignition (CI) diesel engine is one of the most preferred engines for both in-land and marine transportation motors. The advantages of compact dimensions and large generated power make CI diesel engine superior to other engine types. The large number of single CI diesel engines use in small fishing vessel engines and agricultural machinery will contribute substantially to fuel consumption in a cumulative manner. Previous researchs on the modification of fuel system with bi-fuel system High Speed Diesel (HSD)oil – Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) system capable of reducing Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) up to 24% and exhaust gas opacity up to 68%. Subsequent studies focused on engines with single fuel HSD oil but were injected with superheated steam in 1 atm (abs) 130 0C by utilizing Heat Recovery Generating System (HRSG) using heat of exhaust gas for a flowrate of 1.5-4.5 kg/hour. It is capable of delivering the performance improvement of Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC), which is reduced by 8.92% compared to diesel engines without steam injection. Recent research combines the above two modification methods so that diesel will adopt two types of fuel- oil-LPG with additional superheated steam injection resulting from exhaust gas heat cogeneration system. Experimental results of the diesel engine with LPG injection maintained at 0.4 kg/h and 3.5 kg/h superheated steam with an engine variation loading of 0.3-0.7 kWh provide an average AFR of 30.09 and SFC improvement up to 37.2% lower than SFC engine standard with a single fuel HSD oil.