Methane-hydrogen fuel blends for SI engines in Brazilian public transport: Efficiency and pollutant emissions

Partial load operation of SI engines is conventionally achieved by the use of a throttle to control the airflow or air-fuel mixture into the engine. When the engine operates at partial load the throttle causes high pumping losses which has an effect on decrease of the engine efficiency. One of the possible ways to decrease the pumping losses during partial loads is to operate the engine under lean mixture condition. The limitation in this case can be misfiring of used fuel. The combustion limits can be extended by addition of hydrogen to the regular fuel. This work presents an analysis of use of hydrogen-methane taking into account aspects related to the efficiency and emission of pollutants. To carry out this study an experimental system composed of a SI engine was used. Two important differentials were used. First, the engine was supplied with simulated biofuels according to the typical biogas composition of the Brazilian landfills (Bio60); second, the system was operated in partial load, with the addition of H₂, forming the HBio60 blend, in an attempt to increase efficiency and reduce pumping losses by increasing lambda value and variation in trottle position. The same aspects were evaluated with the engine operating with biogas composed of 95% of methane (Bio95) and in mixture with hydrogen (HBio95). The tests were performed at different ignition angles and air/fuel ratio. The results showed that adding H₂ allows the combustion limits to be extended, with an effective increase of indicated efficiency. On the other hand, the reduction of NO_x emissions was greater than 95% in the lean mixture provided by the presence of H₂. The idea is to encourage change in the control algorithm of SI engines typically fueled with natural gas and use the H₂-methane blends as fuel. Furthermore, diesel-powered buses in Brazil could be converted to SI gas engines without the loss of efficiency.