An experimental study on the effect of hydrogen enrichment on diesel fueled HCCI combustion

This paper experimentally investigates the influence of hydrogen enrichment on the combustion and emission characteristics of a diesel HCCI engine using a modified Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine. Three fuels, n-heptane and two middle distillates with cetane numbers of 46.6 and 36.6, are studied. The results show that hydrogen enrichment retards the combustion phasing and reduces the combustion duration of a diesel HCCI engine. Besides, hydrogen enrichment increases the power output and fuel conversion efficiency, and improves the combustion stability. However, hydrogen enrichment may narrow the operational compression ratio range and increase the knocking tendency. Both the overall indicated specific CO emissions (isCO) and CO emissions per unit burned diesel fuel mass are reduced by hydrogen enrichment. Although hydrogen enrichment decreases the overall indicated specific unburned hydrocarbon emissions (isHC), it does not significantly affect the HC emissions per unit burned diesel fuel mass. Crown Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.