Performance and emission comparison of a supercharged dual-fuel engine fueled by producer gases with varying hydrogen content

This study investigated the effect of hydrogen content in producer gas on the performance and exhaust emissions of a supercharged producer gas-diesel dual-fuel engine. Two types of producer gases were used in this study, one with low hydrogen content (H(2) = 13.7%) and the other with high hydrogen content (H(2) = 20%). The engine was tested for use as a co-generation engine, so power output while maintaining a reasonable thermal efficiency was important. Experiments were carried out at a constant injection pressure and injection quantity for different fuel-air equivalence ratios and at various injection timings. The experimental strategy was to optimize the injection timing to maximize engine power at different fuel-air equivalence ratios without knocking and within the limit of the maximum cylinder pressure. Two-stage combustion was obtained; this is an indicator of maximum power output conditions and a precursor of knocking combustion. Better combustion, engine performance, and exhaust emissions (except NO.) were obtained with the high H(2)-content producer gas than with the low H(2)-content producer gas, especially under leaner conditions. Moreover, a broader window of fuel-air equivalence ratio was found with highest thermal efficiencies for the high H(2)-content producer gas. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.