Performance and Exhaust Gas Emissions Analysis of Direct Injection Cng-diesel Dual Fuel Engine

Existing diesel engines are under stringent emission regulation particularly of smoke and particulate matter in their exhaust. Compressed Natural Gas and Diesel dual fuel operation is regarded as one of the best ways to control emissions from diesel engines and simultaneously saving petroleum based diesel fuel. Dual fuel engine is a conventional diesel engine which burn either gaseous fuel or diesel or both at the same time. In the present paper an experimental research was carried out on a laboratory single cylinder, four-stroke variable compression ratio, direct injection diesel engine converted to CNG-Diesel dual fuel mode to analyze the performance and emission characteristics of pure diesel first and then CNG-Diesel dual fuel mode. The measurements were recorded for the compression ratio of 15 and 17.5 at CNG substitution rates of 30% and 60% and varying the load from idle to rated load of 3.5kW in steps of 1 up to 3kW and then to 3.5kW. The results reveal that brake thermal efficiency of dual fuel engine is in the range of 30%-40% at the rated load of 3.5 kW which is 11%-13% higher than pure diesel engine for 30% and 60% CNG substitution rates. This trend is observed irrespective of the compression ratio of the engine. Brake specific fuel consumption of dual fuel engine is found better than pure diesel engine at all engine loads and for both CNG substitution rates. It is found that there is drastic reduction in CO, CO2, HC, NOx and smoke emissions in the exhaust of dual fuel engine at all loads and for 30% and 60% CNG substitution rates by employing some optimum operating conditions set forth for experimental investigations in this study.