Thermodynamic analysis of diesel engine using producer gas as secondary fuel

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

The proposed work reports a combustion model for a dual fuel CI engine for Diesel cycle and Dual cycle. The work then analytically examines the performance of a CI engine with the minimum use of diesel as primary fuel, with producer gas as secondary fuel. The performance has been analysed for work output and thermal efficiency. The combustion model has been developed for ideal diesel engine, diesel-producer gas engine with diesel as primary fuel. The combustion models have been simulated using MATLAB® codes. The specifications of a standard CI engine have been used for numerical calculations. The equation of state in each process in the cycles has been critically analysed based on laws of thermodynamics. The performance analysis shows that, in a diesel-producer gas engine, thermal efficiency increases and work done decreases as the percentage of diesel supplied during combustion process decreases. Also, the addition of producer gas in a dual-fuel (Diesel-Producer gas) engine allows the engine to run over a lower range of maximum temperature of the cycle which reduces the chances of Nox formation.