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a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: In order to cope with power shortage in rural areas of developing countries and to reduce greenhouse gas
Received 4 October 2016 emissions, we study the performance of small biogas-fueled internal combustion engines of which power
Received in revised form 26 January 2017 is less than 5 kW. In particular, the influence of compression ratio on the engine is primarily examined. By
Accepted 30 January 2017
decreasing the combustion chamber volume (from 19.3 cc to 16.6 cc), compression ratio (from 8.01:1 to
Available online 9 February 2017
9.22:1) is increased to enhance brake power output (from 2.2 kW to 2.68 kW), brake thermal efficiency
g g
(from 22.0% to 29.8%) and brake specific fuel consumption of the engine (from 290.6 hPS to 218.6 hPS ). In
Keywords:
addition, as means to examine the effect of the biogas composition on engine performances, various car-
Biogas
Spark ignition engine
bon dioxide dilution ratios (from 0% to 50%) are tested. At lowest carbon dioxide dilution, maximum
Compression ratio engine performance is obtained.
Combustion chamber 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Carbon dioxide
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2017.01.105
0016-2361/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
218 E.-C. Kwon et al. / Fuel 196 (2017) 217224
Nomenclature
need for additional gas supply infrastructure. Moreover, biogas can Therefore, by far, it is reasonable to argue that SI engine is the best
save costs for fossil fuels to be transported from sources to the choice to be implemented in rural areas.
demand sites. Therefore, it is important to study the performance This research aims to study the performance of a biogas-fueled
of the small biogas-fueled SI engines and explore possibilities to SI engine smaller than 5 kW. The ultimate goal is to promote the
apply these engines to those areas. use of biogas in rural areas and provide a more comprehensive
In order to examine power-generating performance of the SI understanding of small IC engine behavior using biogas. In order
engine, there have been a number of studies on engine parameters to investigate the influence of compression ratio on the engine,
that are related to the operating performance of the SI engine. Pou- compression ratio of the engine was changed by simple modifica-
los and Heywood [22] investigated the geometric effect of combus- tions that are viable in rural areas. In addition, carbon dioxide dilu-
tion chamber on SI engine performances. Huang and Crookes [23] tion effect was also examined to map engine performance with
studied the influence of air-fuel ratio on a Ricardo E6 single- various parameters.
cylinder SI engine operating on simulated biogas. The test indi-
cated that power and thermal efficiency reached their peaks with
2. Experimental equipment
the air-fuel ratio between 0.95 and 1.05.
In addition to the variables mentioned above, compression ratio
Genex generator SG3500SX was used in the experiment. The
is a critical factor that affects engine performances and is directly
generator is composed of a Honda GX200 engine and a Linz electric
related to its thermal efficiency. As prescribed in the earlier sec-
SP-E1C/2 alternator. The specification of the generator is shown in
tion, thermal efficiency of the SI engine enhances as compression
Table 1. A tri-fuel conversion kit, which is composed of a regulator
ratio increases. However, when compression ratio is too high,
and an adapter, makes it possible to operate an engine on three dif-
knocking phenomenon occurs, which degrades the engine perfor-
ferent fuels; gasoline, propane and natural gas. In order to modify
mance. When biogas is used as a fuel in the SI engine, compression
the generator to be operated on biogas, which is a gaseous fuel, the
ratio becomes even more important. Biogas-fueled SI engine is
tri-fuel conversion kit purchased from US Carburetion, Inc. was
more likely to have knocking problems than gasoline engines due
installed on the generator, as shown in Fig. 1. The regulator regu-
to the higher self-ignition temperature of biogases. [14]. Accord-
lates a steady flow of biogas under constant pressure in order to
ingly, a SI engine can operate in higher compression ratio condition
with biogas as a fuel and is expected to show improved engine per-
Table 1
formance. Also, for those who live in rural areas of developing
Specification of the generator SG3500SX.
countries, compression ratio is the most straight-forward parame-
ter to control to characterize the engine performance. Alternator Model SP-E1C/2
Maximum power output 3.4 kVA
Some studies investigated the influence of compression ratio on
Power factor cos u 1
the performance of SI engines using a variable compression ratio
Engine Model GX200
(VCR) engine [2326]. VCR is a technology to alter compression
Type Air-cooled 4-stroke
ratio of the IC engine while the engine is operating. It controls com- Over Head Valve
pression ratio by changing the volume above a piston when the Displacement 196 cm3
piston is at top dead center (TDC). Unfortunately, VCR engines Maximum power output 4.1 kW @ 3600 rpm
Fuel Unleaded 86 Octane or higher
are not feasible in rural areas of developing countries because it
Fuel consumption 313 g/kW h
is expensive and it can cause maintenance problems given that
Size (Length) (Width) (Height) (580) (430) (455) mm
they are much more complicated than ordinary engines. Also, a
Dry weight 39 kg
displacement of VCR engines is yet too large for rural use.
E.-C. Kwon et al. / Fuel 196 (2017) 217224 219
Fig. 3. Illustration of a piston at TDC (Left), BDC (Right) and clearance volume.
Fig. 4. Effect of milled cylinder head: (a) Before milling (Left). (b) Milling (Center). (c) After milling (Right).
E.-C. Kwon et al. / Fuel 196 (2017) 217224 221
find out the compression ratio, the combustion chamber volume cases are represented on the experimental results for more reliable
was measured. SAE 10W-30 oil was used for the measurement. results.
g
The density of the oil was 0.876 mL in 760 mmHg, 291.85 K. The
mass of the oil was measured by using CAS Corporation CBL 4.2. Performance test under various carbon dioxide flow rate
3200H electronic balance which has readability of 0.01 g. The com-
bustion chamber volume can be calculated as follows: Huang and Crookes [23] studied the influence of carbon dioxide
Mass of SAE 10W30 Oil fraction in simulated biogas on a VCR Ricardo E6 single-cylinder SI
V Chamber 6 engine of 507 cc displacement volume. However, as stated above in
Density of SAE 10W30 Oil
the previous section, VCR engines and large scale engines are not
Finally, the compression ratio can be obtained by using the follow- feasible in rural areas of developing countries. Since our work is
ing equation that also determines a relation between the compres- focused on small scale engines that are viable in those areas, there
sion ratio and the combustion chamber volume since values of the is a need to test carbon dioxide dilution effect on the engine.
clearance volume and the displacement volume remain constant: Test procedures are similar to those of Section 4.1. When the
fuel transition from the gasoline to the methane has been com-
V Chamber V Clearance V Displacement
CR 7 pleted, carbon dioxide is also supplied to the engine by adjusting
V Chamber V Clearance the knobs of the readout box of the mass flow controller. The
The calculation results present that the compression ratio and the experiment is conducted under 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 LCO 2
min
theoretical thermal efficiency of the standard GX200 engine are conditions. For each carbon dioxide flow rate, 0.2, 0.42, 0.64,
8.011 and 41.8%, respectively. The GX200 engine with a GX160 0.86, 1.13, 1.34, 1.55, 1.76, 1.96, 2.12, 2.34, 2.52 and 2.68 kW load
cylinder head and a flat top piston has the compression ratio of conditions are applied to the engine. Then, the governor lever is
9.091 and the theoretical thermal efficiency of 43.7%. Finally, the pulled to accomplish fully open throttle valve condition. Then,
GX200 engine with a 0.026 mm-milled GX160 cylinder head and the engine will lack of power and need more fuel because the
a flat top piston has the compression ratio of 9.221 and the theo- amount of air intake increases while the methane supply remains
retical thermal efficiency of 43.9%. For readers convenience, each same. Thus, the methane flow rate has been required to increase
case will be named as CR = 8.01:1, CR = 9.09:1, and CR = 9.22:1, until the frequency of the engine meets 60 1 Hz and then
accordingly. recorded. The same procedure was repeated for three times to have
more data points to be averaged. The standard of cooling time for
each experiment was the same as 4.1.
4. Experimental procedure
At first, gasoline is used to ignite the engine since the engine is 5.1. Performance test under 100% methane
not able to start with methane. The type of the gas regulator
installed on the generator is an on demand regulator. The on 5.1.1. Brake power vs. methane flow rate
demand regulator is designed to let the gas flow only if the pres- Fig. 5 is a graph of the brake power output of the engines with
sure at the outlet side is negative. When the engine is running fast respect to the methane flow rate. As shown in Fig. 5, the power
enough, it creates enough negative pressure at the intake manifold, output rises as the methane flow rate increases until the peak
which is connected to the outlet valve of the regulator. However, point. As the methane flow rate rises further beyond the peak
when starting the engine by using the pull-starter, the engine can- point, the power output of the generator decreases and the engine
not rotate fast enough to create sufficient negative pressure at the will eventually stop. Since the displacement is set to be 196 cc and
intake manifold. Therefore, the fuel cannot be injected into the the rotational speed of the engine is set to be 3600 rpm, the
engine and the engine does not start. The fuel valve of the gasoline amount of air-fuel mixture that can enter the engine for a certain
tank is turned off when the engine starts, in order to block further period of time is fixed. Therefore, when too much fuel is injected
gasoline supply. As the operation continues, remaining gasoline is to the engine, the engine shuts off because there is not enough
depleted and the engine is about to be stalled. The moment the air to maintain the combustion. The maximum brake power output
engine shuts off, methane is supplied to keep the engine running indicated in the graph is measured to be 2.2 kW for CR = 8.01:1,
by adjusting the knobs of the readout box of the mass flow con-
troller. Three electrical loads are properly combined to apply vari-
ous loads to the engine. Combined load conditions are 0.2, 0.42,
0.64, 0.86, 1.13, 1.34, 1.55, 1.76, 1.96, 2.12, 2.34, 2.52 and
2.68 kW. When the load is applied to the generator, the governor
lever is pulled to open the throttle valve fully. Then, the engine will
lack of power and need more fuel because the amount of air intake
increases while the methane supply remains same. Thus, the
methane flow rate has been required to increase until the fre-
quency of the engine reaches to 60 1 Hz. The amount of methane
flow rate is then, recorded. The same process is repeated three
times to have more data points to be averaged for more reliable
results. In order to establish a standard of the starting condition
of the engine, the first experiment cold-start case is conducted
when the engine is entirely cooled down. After the first experi-
ment, the engine is cooled down for 10 min and the second exper-
iment hot-start case starts. Likewise, the engine is cooled down
for 30 min after the second experiment and the third experiment
transient-start case carries out. The average of three starting Fig. 5. Brake power of the engines with respect to methane flow rate.
222 E.-C. Kwon et al. / Fuel 196 (2017) 217224
The total efficiency can be calculated from the Eq. (2). In order to
calculate the thermal efficiency of the engine, the alternator
efficiency has to be calculated by using the following equation:
Maximum Power Output of Generator
Fig. 7. BSFC of the engines with respect to brake power. galternator 10
Maximum Power Output of Engine
Fig. 9. Brake power of the CR = 9.22:1 with respect to methane flow rate.
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