23

rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013



Comparison of Performance and Emission Characteristics on LPG Fueled
Multi-cylinder SI Engine with Steam and Water Methanol Induction
Vighnesha Nayak
1)
, Shankar K S
2)
, Mohanan P
3)

1) 3)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, NITK Surathkal
2)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. A. college of Engineering Mangalore
Abstract
LPG has the lower emissions of CO, CO
2
and HC as compared to other liquid fuels but the value of NO
X

emission of LPG is higher. Steam and vapour of water methanol induction are the method used to reduce NO
X

emission in the engine. The present study is done on the analysis of MPFI engine running on LPG using gas
injection system and, steam and vaporised water methanol induction to intake manifold. For the generation of
steam and vaporised water methanol, heat from the exhaust gas has been used. Experiments have been
conducted with gasoline, LPG and LPG with steam and vaporised water methanol (20% of fuel consumption by
mass)at wide open throttle and 6 deg. bTDC static ignition timing. The findings of the experiments suggested
that LPG with vaporised water methanol induction has positive effect on performance and NO
X
emission has
been reduced upto 41% by average value. There is no much difference in HC and CO emissions as compared to
LPG with water methanol induction.
Keywords: LPG, Water methanol, Emission, Steam.
1. Introduction
The motor vehicles are considered as major
contributors to the deterioration of environment. It
has been proven that the pollutants in the motor
emission have considerable impacts on the
ecological systems and the health of human.
Therefore there is an increasing demand on
developing means for reducing emission from motor
vehicles. [1]. Recently, much research has been
conducted on alternative fuel due to increase in
demand for lower fuel consumption and exhaust
emission. [2]. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is well
known as a clean alternative fuel for a production
engine. [3].Although LPG fuel mainly consists of
propane and butane, it may also include different
hydrocarbons such as propene, iso-butane and n-
butane in various proportions. In the present study,
LPG is considered to consist of propane and butane.
LPG and other gaseous fuels have common
properties that provide them some advantages and
disadvantages relative to gasoline [4]. Some of the
major attractions of these fuels, in comparison with
conventional liquid fuels, lie in their relatively low
carbon content, causing them to burn cleanly with
lower emissions of CO, CO
2
, HC and NO
X
. Both
dynamometer and road tests confirm the reduction in
emissions, particularly of the smog forming olefinic
type, and of smoke [5]. The cycle-by-cycle variation
of IMEP with LPG combustion can be reduced by
advancing the idle ignition timing. The experimental
investigations on the test rig used in this paper by
the authors at wide open throttle conditions indicate
that there is an increase in brake thermal efficiency
with LPG use in the engine at higher operating
speeds when compared to gasoline at the factory set
idle ignition timing of 5 deg. bTDC. In addition the
exhaust emissions of CO and HC are considerably
reduced. However, emissions of NO
X
are
significantly increased at elevated engine speeds
when running on LPG as opposed to gasoline [6].
NO
X
Reduction technique
The peak cycle temperature shoots up whenever the
load is increased, which tends to accelerate NO
X

formation. Several techniques have been tried to
inhibit NO
X
formation. Some of them are: use of
EGR, turbo-charging with intercooling, addition of
diluents or water injection along with the intake
charge etc. Injection of water into the intake
manifold has been found to be an effective way to
reduce NO
X
emission in SI, CI and LPG engines.
The principle of water addition in internal
combustion engine is not new. There are many
reports about the effects of water addition on engine
performance, knock and emissions characteristics. It
is investigated that the feasibility of total cooling of
a single cylinder diesel engine by various methods
of water addition into the cylinder [3]. The
combustion with steam or water addition is well
known as a low NO
X
combustion method. NO
X
is
reduced mainly by a decrease of flame temperature
caused by increasing heat capacity of combustion
gas with steam or water [7].
The objective of the study reported in this paper is to
evaluate performance analysis and emission
characteristics of LPG injected MPFI 4-cylinder SI
engine with vapor of methanol and water (40%
methanol and 60% water) induction. Variation of
performance and emissions of CO, NO
X
and HC
with engine speeds under full throttle position are
discussed.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: nayakviggu@gmail.com
23
rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013



DYNAMOMETER ENGINE
F4
F1
Air
Fuel
F2
PT
T2
Wt
N
F3
T1
T4
T6
T3
T5
LPG
Exhaust
out
Water in
Water out

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.
F1- Fuel flow differential
pressure unit
F2- Air Intake DP unit
F3- Rotameter (Engine)
F4-Rotameter
(Calorimeter)
T1- Cooling water inlet
temperature
T2- Cooling water outlet
temperature
T3- Calorimeter water
inlet temperature
T4- Calorimeter water
outlet temperature
T5- Exhaust gas inlet
temperature
T6- Exhaust gas outlet
temperature
N RPM decoder
PT- Pressure transducer
Wt Load on
Dynamometer

Figure 2. Line diagram of steam induction system to
the engine
2. Experimental Setup and Experimental
Procedure
The experimental setup consists of a four-stroke,
four cylinder, S. I engine of Maruti Zen make with
multi point port fuel injection (MPFI) system, which
is connected to an eddy current dynamometer for
loading. The specifications of the test engine are
given in table 1. Fig.1 shows the schematic diagram
of the experimental setup. It is provided with
necessary instruments for combustion pressure and
crank-angle measurements. A piezo-electric pressure
transducer is used for recording the cylinder
pressure. The set up has a stand-alone panel box
consisting of air box, fuel tank, manometer, fuel
measuring unit, differential flow pressure
transmitters for air and fuel measurements, process
indicator and engine indicator. The pressure and
crank-angle signals are interfaced to a digital
computer through engine indicator for p- and p-v
diagrams. Also air flow, fuel flow, temperatures and
load measurements are interfaced to the computer.
An AVL Digas 444 five gas Exhaust gas analyzer is
used to measure the NO
X
(PPM), CO (%vol.), CO
2

(%vol.) and HC (PPM) emissions in the exhaust.
Experiments were conducted at wide open throttle
(WOT) conditions with varying loads in the engine
speed range of 2000 RPM to 4500 RPM. Initially the
engine testing was conducted with gasoline fuel for
recording baseline data and in the next part the
experiments were conducted in the LPG mode. Later
experiments were conducted with vapor of methanol
water induction to the LPG in the intake manifold
with air to analyse the performance and emission
characteristics. Fig. 2 shows the line diagram of
vapor of methanol water induction system to the
engine. The distilled water with methanol was stored
in the tank of capacity of 10 liters. A small AC
pump is used to pump water from the tank and the
flow rate required (maximum of 2.5 liters/hour) was
controlled by means of valves as indicated in the line
diagram. A calibrated water rotameter was used to
precisely measure the flow rate of water in to the
heat exchanger. The water methanol line from the
rotameter is connected to a copper tube segment,
which is coiled around the exhaust pipeline, where
the heat transfer takes place from exhaust gases to
water. The copper tube segment was properly
insulated so as to minimize heat loss. The vapor of
water methanol from the exchanger was fed to the
engine inlet manifold through a T section with gate
valves so as to make sure that vapor only goes to the
inlet. A condensate drain has been attached to the
intake line to drain of any possible condensation.



23
rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013



Table 1.Specification of Test Rig
Engine Make Maruti Zen MPFI
Cylinders 4
No. of Strokes 4
Fuel Petrol (MPFI)
Power 44.8kW @ 6000RPM
Torque 78.5Nm @4500RPM
Stroke 61mm
Bore 72mm
Capacity 993cc
Compression ratio 9.4:1

3. Results and Discussion
A four cylinder, multipoint fuel injection engine has
been modified to work on LPG injection. A set of
experiments have been done on the engine operated
at four engine speed of 2000, 2500, 3500 and 4500
RPM and at wide open throttle(WOT) valve opening
positions with ignition timing being set at 6 deg.
bTDC to analyze the performance and emission
characteristics of engine when it runs with gasoline
and LPG. Later experiments were carried out with
LPG as a fuel and with steam induction and water
methanol induction to the intake manifold at 20% of
steam and vapor of water methanol of fuel
consumption by mass at 6 deg. bTDC to analyze the
engine performance and emission characteristics.
3.1 BP vs Speed
The fig. 3 shows the variation in the brake power
with the engine speed at WOT condition. As the
speed increases the brake power also increases since
it produces the constant torque. There is not much
variation in the brake power with LPG, LPG with
steam and LPG with 20% methanol water to base
line petrol fuel.At higher speed the brake power of
LPG with 20% methanol water shows good
agreement with base line petrol fuel as compared to
LPG and LPG with steam addition.
3.2 B.Th. Eff vs Speed
The fig. 4 shows the variation in the brake thermal
efficiency with the engine speed at WOT condition.
The lean operation decreases the flame speed and
the burning rate, and the reduction in burning rate
results in an increase in the overall combustion
duration. Since the ignition temperature of LPG is
higher than the gasoline, ignition delay and thus
combustion duration is more for LPG [8]. Since
there is a decreases in the average burning rate, to
accommodate this effect engine consumes more fuel
which in turn decreases its efficiency. Hence LPG
has lower efficiency. With addition of steam
decrease in volumetric efficiency and slight increase
in the specific fuel consumption, therefore there is
decrease in the brake thermal efficiency. But with
addition of methanol with steam in the intake
manifold increases the volumetric efficiency and
slight decrease in the specific fuel consumption
which will lead to the increase in the brake thermal
efficiency compared to the LPG.
3.3 Equivalence ratio vs Speed
Equivalence ratio will tell us about weather the
engine is working lean, rich or stoichiometric region.
The fig. 5 shows the how equivalence ratio will vary
according to the speed. At lower rpm gasoline is
working in slight leaner mixture but as it crosses
3500 rpm it will work in richer region. Similar trend
is obtained for the other cases also. But LPG with
20% water methanol is showing good agreement
with the base line fuel gasoline.
3.4 CO vs Speed
The variation of CO emission with speed at WOT
conditions are shown in fig. 6. From the figure it can
be inferred that CO emissions of LPG is far less than
that of gasoline. The CO emissions are reduced from
an average value of 5.23 % to around 1. 9% when
we use LPG instead of gasoline. For LPG, at all
throttle positions the CO emissions is found to be
less than 2% which is well within the limits of
EURO 5 pollution norms. The higher flame
propagation speed and proper mixing of gaseous
LPG with the air enhances the combustion and thus
reduces the CO emissions. As the speed increases
CO emission will decrease for all percentage of
water. This is because of LPG working in leaner
region and as speed increases it reaches
stoichiometric region therefore complete combustion
will take place hence CO emission is decreased for
all percentage of water as speed increases. But with
addition of methanol with water will show slight
increase in the CO emission when compared to the
steam induction but shows good agreement with
LPG.
3.5 HC vs Speed
The variation of HC emission with speed at WOT
condition is shown in fig 7. Oxidation of unburned
HC within the cylinder and in exhaust pipe line may
be enhanced at higher speeds, since expansion and
exhaust stroke gas temperatures increases
significantly due to reduced heat transfer [9]. The
fact that LPG combustion temperature is more than
that of gasoline and also higher flame propagation
speed, because of this complete combustion of fuel
takes place which will be resulted in substantial
reduction in HC emission at all conditions. With
addition of steam, HC emission is decreased
compared to that of without steam. This is because
steam addition will work in stoichiometric region as
the speed increases. But with addition of methanol to
water there is no much difference in the HC
emission when compared to LPG. A good result
obtained with addition water methanol induction.

23
rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013




Figure 3. Variation of BP with speed


Figure 4. Variation of brake thermal efficiency with
speed.


Figure 5. Variation of equivalence ratio with speed


Figure 6. Variation of CO with speed


Figure 7. Variation of HC with speed


Figure 8. Variation of NO
X
with speed


10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
B
P

(
k
W
)

Speed (rpm)
LPG
Gasoline
LPG+20MW
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
B
.
T
h
.

E
f
f

(
%
)

Speed (rpm)
LPG Gasoline
LPG+20MW LPG+steam
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
1.10
1.20
1.30
1.40
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
E
q
u
i
v
a
l
e
n
c
e

R
a
t
i
o

Speed (rpm)
LPG Gasoline
LPG+20MW LPG+ steam
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
C
O

(
%
)

Speed (rpm)
LPG Gasoline
LPG+20MW LPG+steam
0
50
100
150
200
250
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
H
C

(
p
p
m
)

Speed (rpm)
LPG Gasoline
LPG+20MW LPG+steam
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
N
O
x

(
p
p
m
)

Speed (rpm)
LPG Gasoline
LPG+20MW LPG+steam
23
rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013



3.6 NO
X
vs Speed
The variation of NO
X
Emission with speed at WOT
is shown in fig 8. One of the important engine
variables that effect NO
X
emission is equivalence
ratio. It can been seen that as the speed increases
NO
X
emission will almost remain constant for the
gasoline but for LPG the NO
x
will increases as speed
increases for all conditons. Due to higher flame
propagation speed of LPG at stoichiometric
equivalence ratio and proper mixing of gaseous fuels
with air causes an increase in the burning rate of the
fuel and thus results in the complete combustion of
the fuel. Hence the cylinder pressures and
combustion temperatures of LPG are higher than
those obtained for gasoline. As a final outcome of
this, more NO
X
emissions occur in LPG combustion
at higher speeds. The value of NO
X
emission of LPG
is almost three times the emission of gasoline at all
throttle positions.
As the speed increases NO
X
emission will increase
for all the cases. This is because as speed increases,
LPG working in leaner mixture moves towards
stoichiometric mixture region, increasing the
maximum temperature hence NO
X
increases. NO
X
emission will keep on decreasing with addition of
steam as well as vapor of water methanol when
compare to the LPG alone at all speed. The
reduction in the NO
X
is because of steam induction
to the engine. The presence of steam makes the
cylinder peak temperature to come down and lowers
NO
X
emissions significantly. There is a 50C drop in
the exhaust gas measured near the exhaust valve.
The effect of 0.5g of water addition/g of fuel yields a
lower adiabatic flame temperature at a level of 150K
for a stoichiometric air/fuel mixture. It can be
readily shown that, for the Zeldovich mechanism of
a stoichiometric mixture, a 100 degree C drop in the
combustion temperature would cause a 33%
reduction in the NO
X
production rate. [3]. Therefore
there is a great reduction in the NO
X
emission with
introduction of steam.
4. Conclusions
The extensive study conducted on the MPFI 4
cylinder SI engine with gasoline, LPG and LPG with
steam and vapor of water methanol induction with
20 percentage of water and water methanol by mass
draws the following conclusions:
Brake thermal efficiency is better for
gasoline. 20 % of water methanol induction
gives better brake thermal efficiency
compared to LPG and LPG with steam
induction.
CO emissions have reduced when LPG is
used instead of gasoline because of
complete combustion of fuel due the
stoichiometric equivalence ratio. And CO
emissions are decreasing for steam
induction technique. But with addition of
methanol with water will show slight
increase in the CO emission when
compared to the steam induction but shows
good agreement with LPG
NO
X
emission for LPG has increased when
compared to gasoline because of the high
peak combustion temperature. NO
X

emissions keep on decreasing with
induction of steam and vapor of water
methanol induction. Average value of 26%
reduction is obtained using steam induction
technique whereas 41% average value
decrement is obtained using vapor of water
methanol induction compared with LPG.
HC emission is lower for LPG when
compared to gasoline because of the
complete combustion of fuel. But there is
no much variation in HC emissions with
introduction of vapor of water methanol
induction.
At 20% of water methanol flow rate there is
an increase in the brake thermal efficiency
compared to LPG with all speed and
average 41% reduction in the NOx
emission is obtained. There is no much
variation in the CO and HC emissions.
Therefore above 20% water methanol flow
rate is the optimal flow rate for LPG use in
the current testing system.
Nomenclature

MPFI : Multi Point Fuel injection
LPG : Liquified Petroleum Gas
ECU : Electronic Control Unit
bTDC : Before Top Dead Center
RPM : Revolution Per Minute
SI : Spark Ignition
BP : Brake Power
CO : Carbon Monoxide
CO
2
: Carbon Dioxide
NO
X
: Oxides of Nitrogen
HC : Hydro Carbon
AC : Alternate Current
ppm : Parts Per Million
WOT : Wide Open Throttle



23
rd
National Conference onI. C. Engine and Combustion(NCICEC 2013)
SVNIT, Surat, India
13-16, December 2013



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