PAPER PRESENTATION

ON

ALTERNATE FUELS FOR IC ENGINES

AUTHORS:

DEEPTI .D K.L.KIRAMMAI

FROM:

KONERU LAKSHMAIAH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

E-MAIL ID: deeptidesu@yahoo.com kiranmaikuncham@yahoo.co.in

CONTENTS:

1) Abstract

2) Why to Consider Alternative Energy?

3) Ethanol

- Why to adopt ethanol as an alternate fuel

- Use of ethanol in IC engines

- Results and discussion

4) Hydrogen

- Hydrogen in IC engines

- Examples

5) Conclusion

ABSTRACT:

“Necessity is the mother of invention. Energy

crisis is the cry of future.”

The historical and the present-

day civilization are closely interwoven with energy and

in future, our existence will be more dependent upon

energy. The conventional sources of energy, the single

most important pre-requisite for power generation, are

depleting fast. The world is heading towards a global

energy crisis mostly due to running out of these energy

sources; decreasing the dependency on fossil fuels is

recommended. Yet, the sources of energy are infinite.

The greatest task today is to exploit the non-conventional

energy resources for power generation.

Why to Consider Alternative Energy?

Alternative energy sources provide many benefits.

Renewable energy development can create quality jobs

and promote economic development, especially in rural

areas. If used to diversify utility resource portfolios,

alternative energy technologies can provide a hedge

against rising fuel prices and can be valuable risk

management tools.

While some renewable energy resources are not always

available (that is, the wind does not always blow and the

sun does not always shine), the technologies perform

reliably when the "fuel" is available. In this regard, they

can add to the reliability of the electricity grid, especially

for businesses in which power outages are extremely

costly.

At the point of use, solar and wind technologies are

emissions-free. This makes them attractive from an

environmental standpoint. An additional environmental

benefit could be the "brightfields" concept: installing

clean energy technology-related businesses in

environmentally blighted areas (brownfields).

Finally, selected applications of energy efficiency and

renewable energy technologies can enhance the disaster

resiliency of communities and individual structures. For

example, roof- or skid-mounted solar electric systems can

provide needed power to hospitals, fire stations, police

departments, gas stations, national guard armories, etc. in

the sunny days that follow destructive storms.

High cost of petroleum products and

surge the cost of hydrocarbon fuels

Increased demand for petroleum

products.

Strict emissions norms like EURO

NORMS, BHARAT NORMS,

KYOTO PROTOCOL, etc.

Global warming and adverse

environment effect due to pollution

from the automobiles.

ETHANOL:

Among the various options, Ethanol, an alcohol seems

to be a most promising option for countries like India

because of its availability from agriculture products.

Alcohol can be used in diesel engines in following ways.

One method is injection of ethanol with inlet air using

carburetion or electronic injection system and other is

emulsion of diesel and ethanol. And also enable a

reduction in exhaust NOX, smoke and particulate

matter.

WHY TO ADOPT ETHANOL AS ALTERNATE

FUEL?

1. Many alternate fuels are being considered for

automotive vehicles and ETHANOL of the best

alternate fuels. Ethanol is produced from

molasses, which is a by-product of sugarcane

2. Ethanol can be produced in large quantities at

low cost from these mollasses

3. Its high oxygen content improves the

combustion characteristics

4. It also reduces the harmful emissions from IC

engines such as sulphur-di-oxide, oxides of

nitrogen, particulate emissions

USE OF ETHANOL IN I.C ENGINES

The various techniques by which the ethanol can be

used as a fuel for compression ignition engines are_

1.Blend formation

2.Fumigation

3.Dual injection

4.Spark ignition

5.Ignition improvers

6.Surface ignition

BLEND FORMATION:

The easiest method by which ethanol could be used is in

the form of diesel ethanol blend. But ethanol has limited

solubility in diesel; hence ethanol/diesel solutions are

restricted to small percentages (typically 20%). This

problem of limited solubility has been overcome by

emulsions, which have the capability of accommodation

larger displacement of diesel up to 40% by volume. But

the major drawbacks of emulsions are the cost of

emulsifiers and poor low temperatures physical

properties.

DUAL INJECTION:

Dual injection is a method by which nearly 90%

Displacement of diesel by ethanol is possible. The

drawback of this method includes the complexity and

expense of a second injection system and a second fuel

tank and system.

SPARK IGNITION:

Spark ignition of neat ethanol in diesel engines provides

a way of displacing 100% of diesel. A spark plug and the

associated ignition system components must be added to

the engine. Space must be available for spark plugs in

the cylinder head and its also important for sparkplugs in

the cylinder head and it’s also important for proper plug

cooling.

IGNITION IMPROVERS:

Another method of using neat ethanol is to increase their

cetane numbers sufficiently with ignition improving

additives to ensure that compression ignition will occur.

This method saves the expense and complexity of engine

components changes, but adds fuel costs.

SURFACE IGNITION:

This is another method of using ethanol 100% ethanol in

diesel engines. Surface ignition occurs when the

temperature of the air-fuel mixture adjacent to a hot

surface exceeds its self-ignition limit.

FUMIGATION:

Fumigation is a method by which ethanol is introduced in

to engine by carbureting or vaporizing the ethanol into the

intake stream. This method requires addition of a

carburetor or vaporizer along with a separate fuel tank,

lines and controls. But with the emergence of electronic

injection techniques the fumigation technique has been

made possible by using an injector in the intake manifold.

MODIFICATION REQUIRED FOR USING ETHANOL

Though alcohols have been identified as successful

contenders for replacing diesel fuel, a large number of

innovative concepts need to be used to overcome the

problems associated with ethanol in a diesel engine,

either neat or its blends with diesel. Modification like hot

surface ignition, continuously operated glow plugs, spark

plugs, fuel additives, exhaust gas re-circulation, diesel

injection, special piston design like sonex combustion

system (SCS) [8], intake air heating either by controls on

flow from turbocharger or by electric heater are some of

the successful methods by which the best performance

and also higher percentage of energy replacement are

achieved.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

GRAPH: 1

It is observed from the Graph-1 that the engine running

with ethanol shows higher brake thermal efficiency when

compared with engine running with diesel. As ethanol

reduces the heat loss to the combustion chamber walls,

the value of brake thermal efficiency is greatly

increased.

GRAPH:2

The variation of TFC with power of the engine operated

with diesel and substitution of diesel with ethanol by

fumigation and emulsification is shown in the Graph-2

HYDROGEN:

Hydrogen is clean because water is the product after

combustion in an internal combustion engine. However, it

is important to note that nitrogen oxides [NOx] are

produced as well because the high temperature in the

engine makes it possible for the nitrogen in air to react

with oxygen. However, the NOx produced is still less than

that from petrol/diesel internal combustion engines.

HYDROGEN IN INTERNAL COMBUSTION

ENGINES

The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in

which combustion occurs in a confined space called a

combustion chamber. Combustion of a fuel creates high

temperature and pressure gases, which are permitted to

expand.The expanding gases are used to directly move a

piston, turbine blades, rotors, or the engine itself thus

doing useful work. Internal combustion engines can be

powered by a fuel that can be combined with an oxidizer

in the chamber.

Internal combustion engines are most commonly

used for mobile propulsion systems.. When very high

power is required, such as jet aircraft, helicopters and

large ships, they appear mostly in the form of gas

turbines. They are also used for electric generators and

by industry.

For low power mobile and many non-mobile

applications an electric motor is a competitive

alternative. Electric motors may also become

competitive for most mobile applications. However the

high cost and weight and poor energy density of batteries

and lack of affordable onboard electric generators such

as fuel cells has largely restricted their use to specialist

applications.

All internal combustion engines depend on the

exothermic chemical process of combustion: the reaction

of a fuel, typically with air, although other oxidisers such

as nitrous oxide maybe employed.The most common

fuels in use today are made up of hydrocarbons and are

derived from petroleum like diesel, gasoline and

liquified petroleum gas.

Research shows that Hydrogen can replace such

fuels. With the introduction of Hydrogen fuel cell

technology, the use of internal combustion engines may

be phased out. The volumetric efficiency of Hydrogen is

roughly five times lower than petrol. This is why

Hydrogen must be compressed if there is to be a useful

amount of energy.

All internal combustion engines must have a

means of ignition to promote combustion and an

electrical or a compression heating ignition system.

Electrical ignition systems generally rely on a lead-acid

battery and an induction coil to provide a high voltage

electrical spark to ignite the air-fuel mix in the engine’s

cylinders. Compression heating ignition systems (Diesel

engines and HCCI) rely on heat created in the air by

compression in the engine’s cylinders to ignite the fuel.

Hydrogen cars generally use the Hydrogen in one of the

two methods: combustion or fuel-cell conversion. In

combustion, the “Hydrogen” is burned in engines in

traditionally the same method as traditional gasoline

cars. In fuel-cell conversion, the Hydrogen is turned into

electricity through fuel cells which then powers electric

motors.with either method, the only byproduct is water.

Some Hydrogen cars use the common internal

combustion engine, usually fueled with gasoline or diesel

liquids, can be converted to run on gaseous Hydrogen.

The most efficient use of Hydrogen involves the use of

fuell cells and electric motors instead of a traditional

engine. Hydrogen reacts with oxygen inside the fuel

cells, which produces electricity to power the motors.

Hydrogen internal combustion engine cars are

different from Hydrogen fuel cell cars. The Hydrogen

internal combustion car is a slightly modified version of

the traditional gasoline internal combustion engine car.

These cars burn Hydrogen directly, with no other fuels

and produce water vapor exhaust. The problem with

these cars is the Hydrogen fuel that can be stored in a

normal size tank is used up rapidly.

An existing conventional car can be converted to

run on Hydrogen, or a mixture of Hydrogen and other

gases. Since Hydrogen can burn in a very wide range of

air/fuel mixtures, a small amount of Hydrogen can also

be used to ignite various liquid fuels in existing internal

combustion engines under extremely lean burning

conditions. In 2005, an Israeli company claimed it

succeeded in conquering most of the problems related to

producing Hydrogen internal combustion engine by

using a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that

separate Hydrogen out of heated water. A tip of a

Magnesium or Aluminium coil is inserted into the Metal-

Steam combustor together with water where it is heated

to very high temperatures. The metal atoms bond with

Oxygen from the water,creating metal oxide. As a result,

the Hydrogen molecules become free, and are sent into

the engine alongside the steam. The solid waste product

in the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be

collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use.

A FEW EXAMPLES

HONDA’S NEW FCX VEHICLE WITH HOME

HYDROGEN REFUELING

The first Hydrogen refueling station was opened in

Reykjavik, Iceland on April 2003. This station serves

three buses that are in service in the public transport net

of Reykjavik. The station produces the Hydrogen it

needs by itself, with an electrolysing unit, and does not

need refilling: all that enters is electricity and water.

There are numerous prototype or production cars

and buses based on fuel cell technology being researched

or manufactured. Research is ongoing at companies like

BMW, Hyundai, and Nissan, among many others. There

are fuel cell-powered buses currently active or in

production, such as a fleet of Thor buses with UTC

Power fuel cells in California, operated by SunLine

Transit Agency.

HYDROGEN POSTMAN’S BIKE

Some Automobile

are

∙ BMW — 7 series

(auxiliary power),

based on UTC

Power fuel cell technology

∙ Ford Focus FCV — a Hydrogen fuel cell modification

of the Ford Focus

∙ Honda is experimenting with a variety of alternate

fuels and fuel cells with experimental

vehicles based on the Honda EV Plus

∙ Mazda – RX-8, with a dual-fuel (hydrogen or gasoline)

rotary – engine

A few bus companies conducting Hydrogen fuel

cell research are

∙ DaimlerChrysler, based on Ballard fuel cell technology

∙ Thor Industries (the largest maker of buses in the

U.S.), based on UTC Power fuel cell

Technology

The BMW Hydrogen 7 Series IC Engine[135KW power output]

The hydrogen internal combustion engine inside a bus

Conclusion:

In conclusion finally it can be inferred that of all the

alternative fuels, hydrogen is the best and efficienct

alternate fuel for the internal combustion engines. It

seems to be best alternate fuel because of its silent

characteristic like clean and high efficiency. But only

drawback at present is handling and storage problem

apart from a best, most suitable and feasible way of

producing it.