Engine Research Laboratory

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur, India (208016)

Performance, Emission, Combustion and Endurance Characterization of Karanja Oil Biodiesel in CI Engine

Biodiesel from Karanja oil is produced to meet contemporarily biodiesel specifications. This biodiesel will be characterized for its fuel properties by measuring its viscosity, density, calorific value, flash and fire point, cetane number etc.  Performance, emission and combustion characteristics of this biodiesel and its blends with mineral diesel will be evaluated in a transportation compression ignition engine. Long term effect of biodiesel on engine wear will also be investigated. Effect of biodiesel on lubricating oil degradation will be compared with mineral diesel to improve the formulation of lubricating oil for biodiesel fueled engines.

Automotive industry has been forced by the stringent emission regulations to develop technologies for clean and low fuel consumption for ambient air quality improvement, green house gas reduction (CO2 in particular) and energy security. As a result, fuels and engines used in transportation have to face two major challenges of improving fuel economy and reducing emissions simultaneously in a highly competitive economy. Considering continuously evolving stringent emission regulations, as well as increasing shortage of primary energy resources, the development of new highly efficient and environment friendly combustion systems, associated with alternative fuels has becomes increasingly important and hence research needs to be carried out in this domain. Utilization of alternate fuels for engines has several desirable goals including reduced dependence on dwindling supplies of petroleum and emission reduction.

While primary alcohol utilization in a compression ignition engine (as gasohol or diesohol) is problematic, the alcohols are ultra-clean combustion characteristics and can be readily produced from a variety of feed-stocks (renewable as well as non-renewable) including methane, coal, grains and biomass. Biomass production can potentially be based on various waste inputs including crop residue and municipal waste.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) is being considered as an alternative combustion concept in the internal combustion engines. As a state-of-the-art internal combustion concept, HCCI has potential for nearly zero NO_x and soot emissions with efficiency equivalent/ higher than compression ignition. Due to fuel flexibility offered by HCCI combustion concept, alternative fuels like primary alcohols can be used in this new combustion concept. The proposed research in this project focuses on various aspects of performance, emission and combustion behavior of using alcohols in HCCI combustion engines.

This project involves two phases. In the first half of the project, an engine will be modified to run in HCCI combustion mode with the help of suitable hardware modifications, sub-assemblies and instrumentation. This will involve modification of engine hardware, power-train, as well as development and testing of control system and fuel injection system according to the requirements. The aim of the first half of the project is to achieve combustion in HCCI mode. In the second phase of the project, engine’s detailed performance, emissions and combustion investigations in HCCI mode will be carried out. Based on these experimental observations, optimization of fuel injection and control strategies will be devised and experiments will be conducted for achieving lower emissions (with substantial reduction in CO2 emissions of the order of 20-30%) and a wide engine operating range (i.e. large number of speed and load conditions). This study will help develop scientific understanding and engineering system development for utilization of primary alcohols in highly efficient combustion mode i.e. HCCI.

Combustion and Emissions Investigations of a Biodiesel Fuelled HCCI Engine

Extensive experimental research shows that the engine exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency of modern diesel engines indicate several unfavorable conditions for biodiesel fuels when the engines are operated in conventional high temperature combustion cycles. The homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an alternative combustion concept for internal combustion engines. The HCCI combustion engine offers significant benefits in terms of high thermal efficiency and ultra low emissions (NO_x and PM). 

In this context, effect of biodiesel content on HCCI engine performance and emission characterization has been investigated experimentally. Combustion experiments are performed in a two cylinder engine, in which one cylinder operates in HCCI mode while other operates in a conventional diesel engine cycle. The basic requirement of the HCCI engines of homogeneous mixture of fuel and air is fulfilled by port fuel injection strategy, in which an external mixing device is used for fuel vaporization. This fuel vaporizer provides highly premixed charge of fuel and air. HCCI engine is operated with various blends of biodiesel (B20, B40, B60 and B80) and 100% biodiesel (B100). Experimental results of engine tests included combustion and exhaust composition at different engine load and speed conditions. A partial flow dilution tunnel is used for particulate sampling, which are further analysed for various metal concentrations in biodiesel HCCI particulates vis-à-vis diesel HCCI particulates.

Comparative Chemical Characterization of Particulates Emitted from Diesel and Biodiesel Fuelled CRDI Engine

Diesel engines are known for their durability, robustness and for their low fuel consumption that is continuously improving over the past. This advantage has become the most important, since the world is committed to reduce emissions. In addition to inherent high efficiency leading to low emission levels of CO₂, diesel engine produces low CO and HC exhaust levels. Despite all these advantages, diesel engines is disadvantaged in terms of high NO_X and particulate emissions, which are directly associated with adverse health or environmental impacts. In recent years, health effects associated with exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM) and other combustion-generated ultrafine aerosols received substantial attention globally from public, academic and the government. Alternative fuels (Biofuels) are drawing increasing attention worldwide as substitutes for petroleum-derived transportation fuels to help address energy cost, energy security and global warming concerns. My research mainly deals with the Comparative Chemical Characterization of Particulates Emitted from Diesel and Biodiesel Fuelled CRDI Engine. In this study parametric investigations are carried out using a modern automotive CRDI diesel engine operated at different loads at two constant engine speeds  (1800 and 2400 rpm) respectively employing diesel and 20% biodiesel blend (B20) produced from Karanja oil.  A partial flow dilution tunnel was used for sampling and to measure the mass of primary particulates from diesel and biodiesel collected on a 47 mm quartz filter paper collected in 30 min duration. This is followed by chemical analysis of the particulates collected on the substrate for Benzene Soluble Organic Fraction (BSOF), which is a marker of toxicology of the exhaust particulates. The particulates collected from diesel and biodiesel exhaust were analyzed for their elemental composition focusing on trace metals. In addition, real-time measurements for particle bound Organic Carbon (OC), Elemental Carbon (EC) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carried out on the diluted primary exhaust coming out of the partial flow dilution tunnel. Conclusion will be drawn on above parameters whether alternative fuels will have superior engine performance in reducing particulate mass emission at all engine operating conditions compared to mineral diesel or not.

Diesel Engine Emission Control

It is expected that the vehicle density will increase significantly in coming future, therefore more strict emission regulations has to come. It is very important to make the compulsory use of the control techniques in the vehicles to meet the emission standards. The main focus of my research will be on the development of diesel emission control techniques based on the future Indian emission standards.

Biodiesel has been identified as a suitable alternative for the traditional diesel fuel for rural applications in India because of its biodegradable nature and localized abundant availability of the feedstock materials. Decentralized biodiesel production in rural areas of developing countries like India will not only help reduce the petroleum import bill but also help generate employment in rural areas. The biodiesel pilot plant is designed and developed keeping in mind rural applications, where biodiesel can be manufactured on-site for utilization, thus eliminating transport costs related to raw material and final product. The pilot plant is 25 Kg batch size and works on transesterification process. The plant can utilize acid based, alkali based and enzyme based transesterification. This plant has a steam generator for meeting process heat requirements. The transesterified biodiesel is then washed using warm water, in order to remove the catalyst and the final product can be later stored for distribution. Glycerol is the by-product of the process, which is an expensive and important intermediate chemical. Purified glycerol can be used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries to bring the overall economics in favor of biodiesel production. This pilot plant is capable of producing biodiesel from various types of edible and non-edible vegetable oils. Pilot Plant Reactor Optimization, pilot plant scale studies of chemical kinetics of biodiesel production for other oils of Indian origin such as Jatropha and Karanja, analyzing the data generated and modeling the kinetics, quality assessment of the product and fine tuning of the reactor and the process was done  for ensuring the quality and standardization of biodiesel production.

Common Rail Direct Injection system gives engine developers the freedom they need to reduce engine exhaust emissions, fuel consumption as well as engine noise. The particular design of Common Rail, with its flexible division of injection into several pre-, main and post-injections, allows the engine and the injection system to be matched to each other in the best possible way. In the Common Rail accumulator injection system, the generation of the injection pressure is separate from the injection itself. A high-pressure pump generates in an accumulator – the rail – a pressure of up to 1,600 bars, independently of the engine speed and the quantity of fuel injected. The fuel is fed through high pressure pipes to the injectors, which inject the correct amount of fuel into the combustion chambers. The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) controls extremely precisely all the injection parameters – such as the pressure in the Rail, start of injection and rate of injector of solenoid valve injector according to the engine operating condition.

In all alternative fuel being consider as an alternate to IC engine, alcohols have a high    potential. Alcohols are an attractive alternative fuel because they can be obtained from both natural and manufactured sources. Alcohols have much higher octane ratings than typical gasoline ─ which allows alcohol engines to have much higher compression ratios, increasing thermal efficiency. A significant advantage of alcohol fuels is that their emissions are less reactive in the atmosphere, producing smaller amounts of ozone and they do not produce any soot or particulates. Due to high latent heat of vaporization, it can be produce very low levels of oxides of nitrogen and gives cooler intake process. this increases the volumetric efficiency of the engine and reduces the required work input in the compression stroke .it also reduce the sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere because it contain less sulfur due to high octane No. None of the alcohols higher than methanol and ethanol have been seriously considered as alternative fuels .methanol and ethanol are the alcohols which have a potential to use in transportation vehicles. They are liquids and have several physical and combustion properties similar to gasoline and diesel fuel therefore they can be use as same basic engine and use also same fuel system technologies those who used by gasoline and diesel fuel.

Utilization of Natural Gas in Spark Ignited Engine Through Port Injection

CNG, referred to as green fuel, has come out as a solution to depleting crude oil resources (limited to politically sensitive location) by its global distribution as well as to the deteriorating urban air quality problem mainly global warming by reducing CO2 emission.Main objective is to introduce CNG directly into the combustion chamber to overcome the problem of reduced volumetric efficiency and study the performance & emission of the engine. And also make a comparative analysis with manifold injected natural gas operation.