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Hydrogen-Enriched Compressed Natural Gas: An Alternate Fuel for IC Engines

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Advances in Internal Combustion Engine Research

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

Depleting fossil fuel resources is forcing the transport sector to look for renewable fuels. CNG, being produced from fossil as well as natural resources, is a good alternative to liquid fossil fuels. It is relatively abundant and easily available compared to hydrogen. However, it has lower flame speed, shorter flammability range and other limitations, which make it a sub-optimum fuel for IC engines. Hydrogen, which can also be produced from renewable resources, is a possible solution to some of these issues. However, hydrogen has its own limitations in terms of low storage density. It occupies very large volume as a gas, and storing it in liquid form is extremely energy-intensive. There is a sharp contrast in vital properties of both these fuels; therefore, this study explores using mixtures of hydrogen and CNG as alternative fuel. This fuel exhibits merits of hydrogen as well as CNG. Hence, hydrogen-enriched CNG, also known as hythane or HCNG, is being investigated worldwide. This fuel is storable, energy-efficient and emits fewer emissions compared to both constituent fuels individually. One way to produce HCNG blends is to mix the gases using Dalton’s law of partial pressures and store them as premixed blend. This method is time-consuming and cumbersome. With this method, it becomes difficult to investigate all the HCNG blends. It does not have the flexibility to change the mixture ratio, while the engine is operating. Hence, in the current research, a dynamic gaseous fuel mixing system was developed by which one can change the proportions of hydrogen and CNG of the HCNG blends dynamically without necessarily stopping the engine. Validation of the system developed was done by theoretical methods and experimental investigations. We used this mixing system to investigate the technical feasibility of various HCNG blends ranging from 0% H2 to 100% H2 in HCNG. Combustion, performance end emission characteristics were compared. HCNG blend with 30% hydrogen showed better performance and superior anti-knocking characteristics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India

    Sadaraboina Moses Vidya Sagar

  2. Engine Research Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

Authors
  1. Sadaraboina Moses Vidya Sagar
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  2. Avinash Kumar Agarwal
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Correspondence to Avinash Kumar Agarwal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  3. Department of Power Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Amitava Datta

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical, Materials and Energy Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, Punjab, India

    Rakesh Kumar Maurya

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Sagar, S.M.V., Agarwal, A.K. (2018). Hydrogen-Enriched Compressed Natural Gas: An Alternate Fuel for IC Engines. In: Srivastava, D., Agarwal, A., Datta, A., Maurya, R. (eds) Advances in Internal Combustion Engine Research. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7575-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7575-9_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7574-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7575-9

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