EFFECT OF BROWN’S GAS ENRICHMENT ON PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMOTIVE SPARK IGNITION ENGINES

Abstract

Reducing the emissions pollution and fuel consumption are gaining an increased interest worldwide. Brown’s gas (HHO) has recently introduced to the auto industry as a new source of clean energy. Brown’s gas produced by the electrolysis process of water and different electrolytes such as (KOH(aq), NaOH(aq), NaCl(aq)). Studying the effect of HHO enriching of gasoline fuel on the performance and emissions parameters of automotive engine is the objective of this research. For this purpose, a system to generate HHO gas has been built and integrated with a test rig consisting of a Mercedes Benz four cylinder 2299cc KE-Jetronic engine coupled with a water brake dynamometer to measure power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency. An exhaust gas analyzer Brain Bee AGS -688 with engine speed measuring facility is used to measure emissions parameters and engine speed in revolutions per minute (rpm). A calibrated digital load cell is used to measure mass flow rate of the consumed fuel.The results show that a mixture of HHO, air, and gasoline cause a reduction in the concentration of emission pollutant constituents and an enhancement in engine efficiency. The emission tests have been done while varying the engine speed from 1100 rpm to 3400 rpm at constant throttle partial loads from 25% to 50%. The performance characteristics such as brake thermal efficiency BTE, brake specific fuel consumption BSFC and emission characteristics like carbon monoxide (CO), and NitrogenOxides (NOx) are measured. The results are compared with petrol engine normal operation it was found that the Brown’s gas enriched HHO system addition to the engine without any modification resulted in increasing engine torque output by an average of 5%, increasing engine power output by an average of 7% at different engine speeds, increasing brake thermal efficiency BTE by an average of 20.4%, reducing CO emissions by an average of 34.5%, reducing HC emissions by an average of 34.2%, reducing NOx emissions by an average of 32.6% and BSFC by an average of 20.4%.

Keywords:Brown’s Gas, HHO Gas, Specific Fuel Consumption, NOx Emissions, Electrolysis.