Investigations on the combustion parameters of a dual fuel diesel engine with hydrogen and LPG as secondary fuels

This paper presents a detailed experimental investigations on the combustion parameters of a 4 cylinder (turbocharged and intercooled) 62.5 kW gen-set duel fuel diesel engine (with hydrogen and LPG as secondary fuels). A detailed account on maximum rate of pressure rise, peak cylinder pressure, heat release rate in first phase of combustion and combustion duration at a wide range of load conditions with different gaseous fuel substitutions has been presented in the paper. When 30% of hydrogen alone is used as secondary fuel, maximum rate of pressure rise increases by 0.82 bar/deg CA as compared to pure diesel operation, while, peak cylinder pressure and combustion duration increase by 8.44 bar and 5 deg CA respectively. When 30% of LPG alone is used as secondary fuel, the enhancements in maximum rate of pressure rise, peak cylinder pressure and combustion duration are found to be 1.37 bar/deg CA, 6.95 bar and 5 deg CA respectively. It is also found that heat release rate in first phase of combustion reduces at all load conditions as compared to the pure diesel operation in both types of fuel substitutions. One important finding of the present work is significant enhancement in performances of dual fuel engine when hydrogen-LPG mixture is used as the secondary fuel. The highlight of this case is that when the mixture of LPG and hydrogen (40% in the ratio LPG: hydrogen = 70:30) is used as secondary fuel, maximum rate of pressure rise (by 0.88 bar/deg CA) and combustion duration reduces (by 4 deg CA), while, peak cylinder pressure and heat release rate in first phase of combustion increase by 5.25 bar and 35.24 J/deg CA respectively. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.