Abstract

Depletion of fossil fuel and various emission regulation has forced to find alternate fuel
for IC engine. One of the best alternate fuel is hydrogen. It can be used in fuel cell or it can be
used as direct fuel in IC engines. Hydrogen has the high calorific value, low emission, low
ignition energy and high flame speed compared to petrol and diesel. In this proposal hydrogen
will be injected into the cylinder of compression ignition engine along with diesel. Engine
performance, emission parameters, injection timing and duration are studied at various
proportion of hydrogen-diesel mixture with different loading conditions. Based on the study
optimization of injection timing and injection duration will be done and optimum proportion
hydrogen-diesel mixture will be determined.

Introduction
The continuously increasing demand for energy and huge increase in emission has raised
interest in research and development of sustainable and cleaner burning fuels. Fossil fuels are
used extensively and got depleted, this created immense demand for alternate fuel. Hydrogen
has found to be a promising solution. The product of combustion of hydrogen is water, there is
significant reduction in emission but there is slight increase in NOX which is to be monitored
[1].

Hydrogen can be used in compressed ignition engine as a substitute for diesel. But, self-ignition
temperature of Hydrogen is 576oC. It is very difficult to achieve such high temperature by
compression. To overcome this problem glow plug can be used or intake manifold can be
heated but this creates the problem of pre-ignition and backfire. The other solution would be
directly injecting hydrogen into the cylinder and use pilot diesel injection for ignition. The
problem of attaining self-ignition temperature can be solved by injecting mixture of hydrogen
and diesel mixture.

At ambient conditions hydrogen is a gaseous fuel hence it occupies more volume than liquid
fuel. It displaces around 30% of combustion chamber volume at stoichiometric conditions.
Therefore, very less volume of air can be occupied in the cylinder [1].

Literature survey
Different hydrogen properties and their advantages over fossil fuels are discussed in P R
Chitragar et al [1]. Various applications of hydrogen in the field of automobile are explained.
Types of injection systems those can be used for injecting hydrogen in IC engines have been
described.

Hydrogen has been used with petrol and LPG as dual fuel and performance of the SI engine
has been presented in P R Chitragar et al [2]. In this work it is found that due to rapid burning
of Hydrogen has decreased combustion duration. Use of hydrogen in petrol and LPG engines
has reduced emission significantly [2].

Yasin Karagoz et al [3], had performed experiments on diesel engine with dual fuel hydrogen-
diesel. Hydrogen was injected into the intake manifold. In this experiment, it is found there
was decrease in volumetric efficiency, brake thermal efficiency and increase in SFC. There
was decrease in CO, CO2, but there was increase in NOX, unburnt hydrocarbon.

Research Problem
When hydrogen is injected into the intake manifold it occupies more volume. Therefore the
volume of air sucked by the cylinder will decrease. This leads to the problem of decrease in
volumetric efficiency and increase in unburnt carbon [3]. In this research, in indirect injection
engine hydrogen can be injected into the cylinder along with diesel. Hence increasing
volumetric efficiency and complete combustion of fuel due to supply of more air.

Experimental set-up
Below are the various components required for the experiment.

Multi/Single cylinder, 4 stroke, variable speed engine with mechanical injection

system.
Dynamometer
Hydrogen storage tank
Fuel flow meter
Instrument panel (Air intake temperature and pressure, Engine coolant inlet and outlet
temperature, exhaust gas temperature)
Engine speed indicator
Combustion pressure transducer with amplifier
Fuel line pressure sensor with amplifier
Injector nozzle needle lift sensor with amplifier
Crank angle encoder
Smoke meter
Emission analyzer
Hydrogen feed system
Fig.1 Schematic representation of experimental set-up

1.Engine 2.Dynamometer 3.Hydrogen feeding system 4.Diesel tank 5.Fuel pump

6.Fuel flow meter 7.Smoke meter 8.Emission analyzer 9.Inlet air thermocouple 10.Inlet
air pressure gauge 11.Coolant inlet thermocouple 12.Coolant outlet thermocouple
13.Crank angle encoder 14.Engine speed meter 15.Exhaust gas thermocouple.
Fig.2 Hydrogen Gas Feed System

1.Hydrogen cylinder 2.Pressure regulator 3.Pressure gauge 4.Hydrogen flow meter 5. Water
bubbling tank 6. Non-return valve

Approach
Experiments are to be carried out to study the baseline performance with Diesel under full load,
part load at various speeds (low speed, maximum torque speed, rated speed at maximum power
and at idling). Cylinder pressure, fuel line pressure, needle lift v/s crank angle graph, BHP,
torque, smoke v/s speed of engine graph and SFC v/s load at different engine speed are to be
plotted.

The different equations required for the calculations are as follows

2
BHP = 601000 where, BHP = Brake horse power in kW

N = Engine speed in rpm

T = Torque in Nm.
3600
SFC = where, Q = Quantity of fuel injected in m3/sec

= density of the fuel in kg/m3

SFC = Specific fuel consumption in kg/kw-hour

Volumetric Efficiency(VE) = ( )/2

where, air flow rate is in m3/sec

Total volume cylinders = no. of cylinders * volume of single cylinder

Arrangements are to be made for injection of hydrogen in intake manifold. The same
experiments are to be repeated with different proportion of Hydrogen-diesel mixture, graphs
are to be plotted.

Some of the typical graphs of diesel injection systems:

 Evaluation of results and conclusion
Based on observations and graphs obtained injection timing and injection duration has to be
established. With the results of part load and full load performance and emission characteristics
at different proportion of hydrogen-diesel mixture, the best proportion of hydrogen-diesel
mixture has to be determined.

References
[1] Proceedings 2015, P.R.Chitragar, Shivprasad.K.V, Vighnesha Nayak, Kumar G.N, Use of
Hydrogen in Internal Combustion Engines: A Comprehensive study in: 23rd National Heat
and Mass Transfer Conference and 1st International ISHMT-ASTFE Heat and Mass Transfer
Conference

[2] P.R.Chitragar, Shivprasad.K.V, Vighnesha Nayak, P.Bedar, Kumar G.N, An experimental

study on combustion and emission analysis of four cylinder 4-stroke gasoline engine using pure
hydrogen and LPG at idle condition. Energy Procedia 90, 2016; 525-534

[3] Yasin Karagoz, Tarkan Sandalci, Levent Yuksek, Ahmet Selim Dalkilic, Somchai
Wongwises, Effect of hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel usage on performance, emission and diesel
combustion in diesel engine, Advances in Mechanical Engineering 2016, Vol 8(8); 1-13