NOx Emission Reduction Using Hydrous Ethanol-Gasoline Blend with Syngas in SI Engine

Abstract

This paper presents a comparatively experimental study of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from an internal combustion engine fed by gasoline available in the Saudi Arabian market rating octane number (RON 91 and RON 95) with admixtures of syngas with 0% E0, 5% E5 and 10% E10—by volume of pure ethanol—and HE5 and HE10 with water concentrations of 5%, 10%, 30% and 40%—by volume of hydrous ethanol—at stoichio-metric mixtures. An on-board plasma system used to produce syngas through the partial oxidation of gasoline with air in a plasma-assisted fuel reformer. The syngas injected in a gasoline engine with a fuel injection system modified for operation with addition of some amount of syngas. The experimental results demonstrated a significant total reduction in NOx emissions and slightly increased in fuel consumption when mixing gasoline (RON 91 and RON 95), ethanol (E5 and E10) and hydrous ethanol (HE5 and HE10) with syngas. For the use of hydrous ethanol (HE5 and HE10) along with the addition of syngas, for both RON 91 and RON 95, the lowest NOx emissions are found 72% with a water concentration of 40%.