An experimental investigation on manifold-injected hydrogen as a dual fuel for diesel engine system with different injection duration

TLDR: In this article, a single cylinder, four stroke, water-cooled, direct injection diesel engine coupled with an electrical generator was tested in the dual fuel mode with hydrogen and diesel.

Abstract: Stringent emission norms and rapid depletion of petroleum resources have resulted in a continuous effort to search for alternative fuels. Hydrogen is one of the best alternatives for conventional fuels. Hydrogen has both the benefits and limitation to be used as a fuel in an automotive engine system. In the present investigation, hydrogen was injected into the intake manifold by using a hydrogen gas injector and diesel was introduced in the conventional, mode which also acts as an ignition source for hydrogen combustion. The flow rate of hydrogen was set at 5.5 l min−1 at all the load conditions. The injection timing was kept constant at top dead center (TDC) and injection duration was adjusted to find the optimized injection condition. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder, four stroke, water-cooled, direct injection diesel engine coupled to an electrical generator. At 75% load the maximum brake thermal efficiency for hydrogen operation at injection timing of TDC and with injection duration of 30°CA is 25.66% compared with 21.59% for diesel. The oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emission are 21.7 g kWh−1 for hydrogen compared with diesel of 17.9 g k Wh−1. Smoke emissions reduced to 1 Bosch smoke number (BSN) in hydrogen compared with diesel of 2.2 BSN. Hydrogen operation in the dual fuel mode with diesel exhibits a better performance and reduction in emissions compared with diesel in the entire load spectra. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.