RECENT TRENDS IN AUTOMOBILE SYSTEMS

ALTERNATIVE FUELS IN I.C. ENGINES

MARATHWADA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
AURANGABAD.

BY :
Mohd. Umair Ahmed
Umairahmed_88@yahoo.co.in
9764179977

Mohd. ShahFaraz-Ul-Haq
mohdshahfaraz@yahoo.co.in
9860046080

ABSTRACT

Good & quick transportation is the basic need of growth of economy of

country. In days today no one want to waste his time, world is going on fast. For this the
transportation should be quick & economic.
For days to day the vehicles are running on fossil fuels. There are many
alternative fuels. But we are increasing the global warming by their byproducts by using as a
fuel. So solution on this problem is to select the fuel that it overcomes on the above problem.
Hydrogen is the best fuel because its emissions are very low except NOx.
The paper deals with the application of advanced methods to modeling of
hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen has been called the most alternative of the alternative fuels:
if it is made by electrolysis of water using electricity from a nonpolluting source like wind
or solar power, then no pollutants of any kind are generated by burning it in an internal
combustion engine. The fueling of classical I.C. engines with hydrogen represents the
other possibility of hydrogen utilization as the alternative renewable fuel. It is a very
convenient fuel for reciprocating engines, which is able to fulfill all future requirements
concerning emission formation and engine efficiency.
The paper deals with hydrogen as fuel for tomorrows vehicles. Hydrogen is
currently available only as an industrial or scientific chemical product, not as a bulk fuel.
The paper deals with what is hydrogen, its structure, its importance, its production, its
requirement its applications, its transportation, its refueling, information of hydrogen fuel
cells and engine and advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen as a fuel and after all
conclusion.

INTRODUCTION
As reserves of fossil fuels have decreased, alternative fuels as well as alternative
power sources have become more and more important, because our world is running on IC
Engine wheels and fossil fuel storage is going on decreasing day to day and when it will on
the bank of end then we will understand that how we are dependable on them. So, it is
necessary to find such fuel or power source or (engine or prime movers) which are able to
meet all current and future requirements concerning friendliness to the environment and
reasonable overall efficiency of energy transformation.
Most motor vehicles run on petrol or diesel fuel. But there are a number of other
ways of powering a motor vehicle and these are labeled alternative fuels. There are some
alternative fuels that are now affordable, thanks to the large increases in oil costs, and they
are becoming more available those are Hydrogen, Methanol, Ethanol, CNG, LPG, LNG,
Biogas, Electric vehicles, Solar cars etc.
On above discussion there is another way such as Hydrogen Engine in other word aircleaning engine. Because in it air is cleaner in the exhaust then the intake to the engine. This
provides reduction between 50% to 70% removal of smog constituents from the air. Its strong
advantage since it can be used in the classical of IC Engine without considerable change in
the basic design concepts. Its efficiency is also higher than conventional IC Engines.

Refueling Station Infrastructure Alternatives

Originally, 6 refueling station cases were selected for analysis. These give an estimate
of the cost of hydrogen dispensed to the vehicle. These cases were:
Bulk liquid hydrogen from an existing central reformer is transported to the
refueling station by truck, stored as a cryogenic liquid and dispensed to the vehicle as a
liquid.
Bulk liquid hydrogen from an existing central reformer transported to the refueling
station by truck, stored as a cryogenic liquid and dispensed to the vehicle as a gas.
Bulk gaseous hydrogen transported to the refueling station by existing pipeline,
stored as a compressed gas at 5000 psi and dispensed to the vehicle as a gas. This case is
valid only where there is a nearby pipeline. (Pipeline construction costs were considered
later.)
Gaseous hydrogen generated at the refueling station from natural gas by steam
methane reforming (SMR), stored as a compressed gas at 5000 psi and dispensed to the
vehicle as a gas.
Gaseous hydrogen generated at the refueling station from natural gas by a partial
oxidation (POX) process, stored as a compressed gas and dispensed to the vehicle as gas.
Gaseous hydrogen generated at the refueling station by electrolysis, stored as a compressed
gas at 5000 psi and dispensed to the vehicle as a gas. (For the early analysis, grid electricity
was assumed to power the electrolyzer ) . Renewable electricity was considered later

Hydrogen I.C. Engine

The working of this engine is same as conventional I.C. engines. The hydrogen fueled
engine works on both the compression ignition engine & spark ignition engine.
In C.I. hydrogen engine the air admitting intake manifold is compressed at compression
limit & then liquid hydrogen is sprays by special designed injector by these hot air
temperature reacts with the injected hydrogen and high explosion takes place in the engine
cylinder by this the volume of intake charge is increased by three times to its original volume.
By this high pressure is build up in the engine cylinder and this increased pressure exerts the
force and on cylinder walls piston head by this piston goes downwards taking amount energy
produced in the combustion chamber to the crankshaft by means of connecting rods.

Properties Of Hydrogen
Sr.No.

Names of Properties

value

High auto ignition temperature

520c

Low ignition energy

0.017MJ

flame temperature

2050c

High flame speed

3.24-4.40m/s

High specific energy

120.0 MJ/kg

Wide flammability limits

4.0-75 vole%

Fuel weight

10.3 lb

Coal gasification cost

16-20 $/10^6 Btu

Relative engine efficiency

1.15-1.25

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Fuel consumption

3020-3280 tu/mile

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Overall electricity consumption

4646-046Btu/mile
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90

13

Compressor efficiency
CO2 emissions

14

Emissions of H2 from coal gasification

60%

15

Emissions of H2 from methane

75%

33%

Fig .3.1 Hydrogen life cycle

Safety of hydrogen
Hydrogen is certainly a dangerous fuel, it burns & explodes but so do gasoline and
natural gas. Engineers safe hydrogen vehicle & distribution system will be challenging and
expensive. In safety technology of hydrogen a total three valves ensure optimum safety. Two
additional safety valves rule out any dangerous consequences of possible leaks in the jacket
around the tank serving to keep hydrogen at the low temperature required opening up as soon
as pressure within the tank exceeds the limit of 5 bar. This double in addition, liability &
insurability are serious issues in our legions society.
Ex. NASA also has extensive experience in handling hydrogen, but it is difficult to
extrapolate todays experience.

Emissions Analysis
Composite tailpipe emission results are shown in Figure 9.These give a graphical
representation of the dramatic reduction in tailpipe emissions from hydrogen vehicles
compared to all other alternatives.
Emissions from station operations or delivery of fuel to the station have been
estimated for the various station configurations. These are primarily engine pollutants from
diesel delivery trucks, fuel volatiles (so called "marketing emissions") for gasoline and
methanol delivery, and green house gases for the cases with on-site hydrogen production
from natural gas.

Future balances
When developing future hydrogen scenarios, most refiners concentrate only on the
global hydrogen balance to assess whether there is an overall shortfall in hydrogen. Rarely
are changes in high pressure and low pressure purge flows, and the subsequent impact on
amine treating, LPG recovery and the fuel gas system considered. Therefore, major
bottlenecks can lie in these systems. Two techniques are generally applied to evaluate re-use
and purification options, good engineering practice and the so-called hydrogen pinch
technology. Simply identifying the largest losses of hydrogen to fuel gas, and looking
membrane or PSA unit can make improvements. This often leads to a costly solution where

all higher purity purge streams are combined, compressed and routed to a large purification
unit for recovery.

APPLICATION OF HYDROGEN
1. Advanced, hydrogen-powered energy generation devices such as combustion turbines
and reciprocating engines will enjoy widespread commercial use.
2.

The commercial production, delivery, and storage of hydrogen will go hand in hand
with the commercial conversion of hydrogen into valuable energy services and
products, such as electricity and thermal or mechanical energy.

3.

The technologies appropriate for commercial conversion include established

technologies, such as combustion turbines and reciprocating engines, as well as less
developed technologies with great potential, such as fuel cells.

4. Current products embodying these technologies have the potential to provide safe,
clean, and affordable energy services.
5. Research is mostly developed in Europe, Japan & in the U.S.
6. Daimler Benz (6) developed a fleet of 10 prototype H2 powered cars & vans using metal
hydride storage.
7. BMW [3] built several H2 cars using liquid H2.
8. Mazda [7] demonstrated small H2 cars using rotor engine.
9. H2 ICE is used in automobile, cars, buses, trains, big ships, aero planes, big shuttles,
missiles, Electric power generation plant, etc.
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ADVANTAGES OF HYDROGEN
1. No carbon-di-oxide is generated when it operates, Hence Environmentally tolerable to
greater levels of worldwide use.
2. The combustion of hydrogen results in very low or negligible emissions.
3. Using hydrogen as the Battery to store energy from a nonpolluting, renewable source
would result is no truly unlimited supply of clean fuel.
4. There is no fear like after some time there is no hydrogen on earth like fossil fuels, we
can make it in different types for different application & for in required or in big
scale.
5. It can be used in fuel cells where it reacts with oxygen and produce electricity to drive
the motor for running the vehicle.
6. It takes less space and weight to store enough hydrogen to drive a given distance on a
single refueling than it does to carry enough battery capacity to go the same distance
on a single recharging.
7. For long trips hydrogen could prove to be a lot more convenient.
8. Inherently less smog potential because only 3 element (O, N.H.) instead of 4 (O, N.H, C)
in a flame.
9.

Direct injection (DI) hydrogen (H2) engines hold promise for transportation because
high thermal efficiency high power density, reduced emissions, low cost & lack of
cold starting problems.

DISADVANTAGES OF HYDROGEN
1. The H2 can be manufactured economically and the infrastructure to distribute it nationally
and globally is unsolved.
2. Hydrogen have low density so it required very large storage container, for e.g. for storing
6 to 7 kg of hydrogen it required the 150 Litres tank to store.
3. It is difficult to generate, handle and store requiring bulky & heavy tanks like those for
compressed natural gas. (CNG)
4. 20% reduction in power as compared to gasoline due to low energy density.
5. Cost of hydrogen is 3-5 times more than natural gas and 1-19 times more than gasoline.
6. It is not a very good fuel for an internal combustion as being prone to pre-ignition.
7. It is certainly dangerous fuel as it burns and explode quickly.

CONCLUSION
Now a days whole world is running on fossil fuels for transportation but by this
we are emitting lot of green house gas in environment and increasing global warming.
Conversion of hydrogen into useful forms of electric and thermal energy involves
use of fuel cells, reciprocating engines, turbines, and process heaters. Research and
development are needed to enhance the manufacturing capabilities and lower the cost of fuel
cells as well as to develop higher-efficiency, lower-cost reciprocating engines and turbines.
But the problem is in its production, storage and very low density but the research
is going on to overcome the problem. It is more flexible to use for more applications such as
fuel cells I.C engines so it is most used fuel from other fossil fuels.
Hydrogen could provide clean, renewable energy for the future.
REFERENCES
1. Alternative fuels in I. C. Engine / ref. Mathur & Sharma.
2. G. T. Power, Users manual-Vers.5.1. Gamma technology lnc. , 601 Oakmont lane,
Suite 220, Westmont, IL, USA.

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