Prabin K. Sharma et al.

: Use of Acetylene as an Alternative Fuel in IC Engine

Use of Acetylene as an Alternative Fuel in IC Engine

Prabin K. Sharma, Harihar Kuinkel*, Praveen Shrestha, Suman Poudel
Abstract This project leads to the idea of using acetylene gas in the internal combustion engine such that it reduces the demand of the petroleum products that is going to be extinct in near future. It includes about the emissions of harmful gases that can be reduced by the use of acetylene instead of petroleum products. Various fuels have been tested on IC engines for their suitability as alternate fuels. Expect few alcohols, CNG and LPG, not many fuels have been found to be matched with IC Engines requirements .Thus this project is an attempt for the use of an alternative resource such that it can prove to be useful for the peoples in near future.5 Index terms Alternative fuel, emission, thermodynamic approach, exhaust analysis, comparison, efficiency.

As acetylene is colorless gas and is highly combustible with high flame speed and fast energy release, it can be used as alternative fuel in IC engines. It has a very wide flammability range and minimum ignition energy required for ignition. Furthermore comparing with various other fuel properties, acetylene proved good to be used in internal combustion engines.
TABLE I COMPARISON WITH OTHER FUELS
Physical and Combustion Properties of fuels Fuel Density kg/m (At 1 atm & 20 o C) Auto ignition temperature (oC) Stoichiometric air fuel ratio, (kg/kg) Flammability Limits (Volume %) Flammability Limits (Equivalent ratio) Lower Calorific Value (kJ/kg) Lower Calorific Value (kJ/m3) Max deflagration speed (m/sec) Ignition energy (MJ) Lower Heating value of Stoichiometric mixture (kJ/kg)
3

Acetylene C 2 H2 1.092 305 13.2 2.5 81 0.3 9.6 48,225 50,636 1.5 0.019

Hydrogen H2 0.08 572 34.3 4 74.5 0.1 6.9 1,20,000 9600 3.5 0.02

Diesel C8 C20 840 257 14.5 0.6 5.5 -----42,500 ------0.3 --------

I. INTRODUCTION
N the present context, the world is facing difficulties with the crisis of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation. Conventional hydrocarbon fuels used by internal combustion engines, which continue to dominate many fields like transportation, agriculture, and power generation leads to pollutants like HC (hydrocarbons), SOx (Sulphur oxides), and particulates which are highly harmful to human health. CO2 from Greenhouse gas increases global warming. Promising alternate fuels for internal combustion engines are natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), hydrogen, acetylene, producer gas, alcohols, and vegetable oils. Among these fuels, there has been a considerable effort in the world to develop and introduce alternative gaseous fuels to replace conventional fuel by partial replacement or by total replacement. Many of the gaseous fuels can be obtained from renewable sources. They have a high selfignition temperature; and hence are excellent spark ignition engine fuels. And among these wide area of research, use of acetylene as internal combustion source in engine could be most appropriate field to research as alternative source of fuel and can be used as the synthetic fuel for transportation.

3396

3399

2930

III. OVERVIEW OF PROJECT

Step 1: The first step involves the production of acetylene gas through the Calcium Carbide reacting with water in the reaction tank. CaC2+2H2O C2H2+Ca (OH)2

The principal objective and advantages of the present project include: providing a fuel comprising acetylene as a primary fuel for an internal combustion engine; providing such a fuel including a secondary fuel for eliminating knock which might otherwise arise from the acetylene.

II. ABOUT ACETYLENE

Acetylene is the colorless gas with garlic smell produced from the calcium carbide , which is obtained from calcium carbonate . Further the calcium carbonate is heated in lime kiln at about 8250c which forms calcium oxides (lime) liberating . Calcium oxide is then heated in electric furnace with coke to produce calcium carbide finally calcium carbide is hydrolyzed producing acetylene.

The reaction tank constitutes two chambers: In first (upper) chamber the water is kept. In second (lower) chamber the calcium carbide is kept. The water from the first chamber is released in such a way to proceed the reaction spontaneously. The water is passed through the control valve. In the second chamber the calcium carbide is kept in desirable amount to react with water. Through second chamber a valve is connected to the storage tank where the gas produced during reaction is stored.

*Corresponding author: kuikelharihar@gmail.com Prabin K. Sharma, Harihar Kuinkel, and Praveen Shrestha are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering , Kathmandu University Suman Poudel is with the Department of Environmental Engineering , Kathmandu University

Rentech Symposium Compendium, Volume 1, March 2012

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Prabin K. Sharma et al.: Use of Acetylene as an Alternative Fuel in IC Engine : Step 2: In this step the acetylene gas is stored in the storage tank and the pressure is measured by the pressure gauge. this phenomenon is not mentioned here but we can simply compare the results from the calculated values.
TABLE II ADIABATIC FLAME TEMPERATURE COMPARISON Acetylene 2908.120K Gasoline 2068.980K Acetylene with alcohol 2569.540K

From above results we can say that alcohol is to be introduced so as to reduce the temperature inside the combustion chamber. For start up and operation of the engine, two stages are involved: first the engine is started by secondary fuel (use of ethyl alcohol in this project). And alcohol after certain warm-up period the second stage involves warm-up operating the engine by the use of primary fuel (acetylene) to generate power output from the engine.
Fig. 1: Experimental Setup

In this step the produced gas is stored and is passed through the pipes. Here the gas is stored to avoid moisture and the gas stored in storage tank is provided pressure through pressure gauge so the gas is of high concentration. Step 3: The gas is passed in the pipes in a very passed sophisticated manner and then pipe is joined in the carburetor fitted with the filter, this then filters the air and then combines with petrol as secondary fuel which is added in very few amount ( in about 10 to 15%) to prevent knocking for smooth operation of an engine. Then the nocking mixture is passed in the engine.
Fig 3: Gas Injection Valve ig. njection

Fig. 4: Time Manifold Control Unit

IV. SOME BASIC THERMODYNAMIC EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT

A. Stiochiometric Air/Fuel Ratio Calculation atio alculation
Fig. Fig 2: Overview of the Project

The main governing equation of the combustion is described below for the calculation of air fuel ratio ratio-

III. INTRODUCTION OF SECONDARY FUEL

We can illustrate that introduction of secondary fuel is an essential part of this project as introducing alcohol ( helps to reduce the adiabatic flame temperature in the combustion process which leads to avoid the auto ignition and and knocking. The illustration of Rentech Symposium Compendium, Volume 1, March 2012 20

Prabin K. Sharma et al.: Use of Acetylene as an Alternative Fuel in IC Engine 6 = 4.16, = 1.27, = 7.406 , = 3.84 , = 0.896 , = 0.73 , = 0.074 C8H14.96 = 0.104C2H2

B. Comparison of maximum useful work of acetylene and gasoline

,

TABLE III EXHAUST GAS COMPOSITION PER UNIT MOLE

Gasoline

0.0695 0.1239 0.0642 0.00124 0.7410

Acetylene 0.0804 0.720 0.058 0.00836 0.7586

Now, for the calculation of Gibbs free energy of the acetylene for complete combustion i.e. for equivalence ratio ( 1) we have the followings. , 43.326 2 2 + = 2 394360 228590 209170 = / = 45.7 /

(Note that the carbon monoxide emission for gasoline is greater than that of acetylene)

VI. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

A. Total Emissions in Metric Tons
The molecular weight of acetylene is 26 with two carbon atoms (C2H2 gas density = 0.068 lb/ft3 typically the Material and Safety Data sheet will provide this detail of information) while the molecular weight of CO2 is 44 with one carbon atom. Given that each mole of acetylene, under complete combustion, will create two moles of CO2 (i.e., each pound of acetylene combusted will produce 3.38 pounds of CO2 (2x44/26)). Use the following conversion calculations to derive an emission factor for acetylene:
.

This illustrates that the maximum useful work of acetylene and gasoline is quite comparable.

= = 1

30.845

26.04

1 1.185
.

= 2 1 = = =
. . .

Fig. 5: Comparison of Thermal Efficiency by Adiabatic Constant

1.185 1
.

2.370

V. EXHAUST GAS COMPOSITION BY THERMODYNAMIC APPROACH FOR RICH MIXTURE ( = 1.2

+ 44.295 (T=1700K) . + + 3.773
.

Acetylene consumed cubic feet Total emissions metric tons Acetylene Emission Factor

+ 3.773

+ +

+ +

+ 9.4325 log =8.011+4.699-12.180=0.530 Where, =3.338 (Equilibrium constant) from JANAF table. By balancing the no. of moles we get the following quadratic function. 2.38 36.701 + 105.830 = 0 = 3.83 Rentech Symposium Compendium, Volume 1, March 2012

The result obtained from this calculation illustrates that the amount of CO2 emitted is fairly minimum and other emissions like NOx, SOx are highly negligible compared to CO2. This indicates that acetylene can be relatively more environmental friendly than gasoline.

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Prabin K. Sharma et al.: Use of Acetylene as an Alternative Fuel in IC Engine

B. Ozone Layer Depletion (Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP))

Despite playing a protective role in the stratosphere, at ground-level ozone is classified as a damaging trace gas. Photochemical ozone production in the troposphere, also known as summer smog, is suspected to damage vegetation and material. High concentrations of ozone are toxic to humans. Radiation from the sun and the presence of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons incur complex chemical reactions, producing aggressive reaction products, one of which is ozone. Nitrogen oxides alone do not cause high ozone concentration levels. Here are some of the comparisons of POPC between several compounds.
TABLE IV POPC COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS

This paper include the fact that acetylene can be a good fuel for the country like Nepal where calcium carbonate are abundant in nature as it is already discussed above. Despite of being, good fuel for IC engine, there are some of the control measures and safety precautions that are involved in gas phase reactions that can cause serious damages. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Accomplishment of this project was indeed very challenging and we overcame it with the help of department of Mechanical engineering at Kathmandu University. We would like to thank our coordinator Dr. Bibek Baral for helping us succeed this project and also would like to thank Mr. Suraj Pandey for helping us in our queries .We are also very thankful to our friends who helped us in the entire project. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] J. B. Heywood, Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1988. Chigier N (1981) "Energy, Combustion and Environment", McGraw Hill J. Wulff, W.Hulett, L. Sunggyu, Internal combustion system using acetylene fuel. United States Patent No 6076487. N. Swami, J.M. Mallikarjuna, A. Ramesh, HCCI engine operation with acetylene the fuel. SAE paper no 2008-28-0032. V.M.S. Ashok, N.I. Khan, Experimental investigation on use of welding gas (Acetylene) on SI Engine. Proceedings of AER Conference, IIT, 2006. [6] Ganesan V. Internal combustion engine. 3rd ed. Singapore: McGraw Hill Book Company; 2007.

BIOGRAPHIES
Prabin Kumar Sharma is studying Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (IIIYr/Ist sem) at Kathmandu University. Harihar Kuinkel is studying Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (IIIYr/Ist sem) at Kathmandu University. Note that acetylene has very low POPC that implies it has low reactivity towards OH- radical. Praveen Shrestha is studying Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (IIIYr/Ist sem) at Kathmandu University. Suman Poudel is studying Bachelors in Environmental Engineering (IIIYr/Ist sem) at Kathmandu University.

The total emissions vary greatly with fuel structure. Two factors have been identified for this large variation: diffusion and reactivity. Diffusion of fuel molecules from boundary layers near the cylinder wall into the hot core gas causing partial oxidation of this fuel may be a significant source of burn-up of HC species exiting crevices during the expansion stroke. Thus, higher molecular weight fuels, which diffuse more slowly, tend to exhibit higher emissions.

VII. ABUNDANCE OF CALCIUM CARBONATE IN NEPAL

As mentioned earlier, acetylene is the outcome of calcium carbide. Similarly, calcium carbide is the outcome of calcium carbonate. According to Krishna Dev Jha, senior divisional metallurgical engineer at Department of Mines and Geology, Nepal has a billion tons and proven reserves of 210 million tons. This indicates that Nepal has an abundance of calcium carbonate which is the key factor for the production of acetylene. This seems to be one of the fruitful aspects in the development of acetylene gas in our own country, hereby reducing the maximum use of gasoline.

VIII. CONCLUSION
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