Experimental study on si free piston engine emission characteristics and its performance evaluation using multi fuels

Abstract

Free Piston Engine (FPE) technology has been promising technology for the future as one of the solution to the low engine efficiency and high exhaust emissions. Potential alternate gaseous fuels for Spark Ignition (SI) engines are natural gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), hydrogen, biogas and producer gas. For conserving energy and protecting the global environment, biogas is a promising alternative biofuel. This research study is focused towards analyzing the performance and emission attributes of a novel spark ignited two stroke free piston engine with gas spring system coupled with wound spring fuelled with gasoline, LPG and enriched biogas In the first stage, an attempt is made to develop a novel spark ignited two stroke free piston engine with gas spring coupled with wound spring system and studied its performance. The engine was performed by using gasoline, LPG and enriched biogas as fuels under different load conditions to examine the performance and emission attributes. During the second stage, experimental study has been carried out to investigate the impact of various percentage of volume of oxygen enrichment of intake charge in a FPE fuelled with gasoline and enriched biogas. In the third stage, investigation has been carried out to the effect of different Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) rates on performance and emissions in the FPE fuelled with gasoline and enriched biogas under different load conditions. In the final stage, an effort is made to study the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from the engine using a catalytic converter integrated with shape memory alloy (NiTinol wire) screener and Magnesium Oxide coated copper mesh was implemented with use of enriched biogas fuelled engine under different load conditions newline