WREC 1996

EFFECT

OF CARBON

DIOXIDE ON THE PERFORMANCE DUEL-FUEL ENGINE Saiful Bari

OF BIOGAS/DIESEL

School of Mechanical Engineering,

Universiti Sains Malaysia, 3 1750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT Methane and carbon dioxide are the two main constituents of biogas. Biogas also contains traces of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen sulphide. When diesel engine runs on biogas, the combustion is poor as comuared to diesel fuel. One of the reason of Door combustion is the nresence of carbon dioxide in the biogas. Percentage of methane and carbon dioxide in biogas varies with the maturities of feed stock, temperature, water content, loading rate of raw material and bacterial actions. This paper examines the effect of variations of carbon dioxide in biogas on the performance of the engine to simulate the performance of the engine running with biogas from different sources (varying proportion of methane and carbon dioxide).

KEYWORDS Biogas; natural gas; carbon dioxide; dual-fuel diesel engine.

INTRODUCTION In view of energy crisis, biogas can act as a promising alternative fuel by substituting considerable amount of fossil fuels. Biogas, produced by the anaerobic fermentation of cellulosic biomass materials, is a clean fuel to run internal combustion engines. Biomass materials, produced by the conversion of diffused solar energy via photosynthesis process, are renewable in nature, thereby not net contributors to the atmospheric concentrations of the green house gases. Biogas can act as a promising alternative fuel, especially for diesel engines by substituting considerable amount of diesel fuels. Diesel engines have higher thermal efficiency compared to other types of engines and are more extensively used in rural areas. The composition of biogas, depending on the feed material and the method of digestion, usually lies within the following ranges: 50-70% methane (CIQ), 2550% CO2, l-5% Hz, 0.3-3% N2 and various minor impurities, notably hydrogen sulphide (H2S) (Jawurek &&, 1987). Hydrogen sulphide provides the biogas its bad odor. The presence of carbon dioxide in the biogas reduces the burning velocity which ultimately affects the performance of the engine. The study (Jawurek et., 1987) showed that the peak pressure inside the cylinder as well as the maximum power decreased because of the presence of carbon dioxide in the biogas. Biogas containing more than 45% carbon dioxide caused harsh and irregular running of the engine. Similar results were obtained by others (Hobson et., 1981, Biswas 1994), in which increased exhaust emission of the unburned fuel was found in the region of 45-50% carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide content of biogas can, however, be reduced by methanation process(Goodger 1980). These processes are usually expensive and complicated for developing technology implementations. Decreasing carbon dioxide content will certainly improve the quality of biogas. This research is focused on how the engine performance varies with the carbon dioxide content in biogas. This will justify the process of scrubbing raw biogas to get rid of carbon dioxide. 1007

WREC 1996 In this research work, gaseous mixture of natural gas and carbon dioxide of different compositions are used in engine to simulate operation of the engine with biogas containing varying percentage of carbon dioxide. Natural contains about 96 per cent of methane and plays the same role of methane in the biogas.

BIOGAS FUELING IN DIESEL ENGINE Diesel engine can be easily converted to fumigated dual-fuel engine, which is the most practical and efficient method of utilizing alternative fuels, like biogas having higher spontaneous ignition temperature than diesel fuel. This method has the advantage that in case of a shortfall in biogas supply during an important operation, the engine switches over smoothly without interruption to conventional diesel operation. In fumigated dual-fuel method, the biogas is mixed with the air before the mixture enters the combustion chamber, and at the end of the compression stroke a pilot quantity of diesel fuel is injected to ignite the mixture.

INSTRUMENTAL

SET-UP AND TEST PROCEDURE

Laboratory investigation was carried out in a two cylinder four stroke cycle diesel engine (16.8 kW at 1500 rev/mm, Model-2105 Nang Chang Company, China). The engine was water cooled, naturally aspirated with double swirl combustion chamber. Some modification were done on the engine in order to facilitate the incornoration of some measuring devices. The flow charts of the technological nrocesses used in the expeiments are illustrated in Fig. f

Carbon dioxide cylinder

Carbon dioxide (htgh pressure)

Relief valve

Carbon dioxide (low pressure)

Heater

Manometer

Flow meter of Natural gas

Natural gas (low pressure)

Natural gas from mains supply

V Regulating valve QtuUttifled Carbon dtoxtde Regulating valve Air * Quantified Mixer Natural ga. 4-l Quatified blogas ) Engine +. Hydraulic dynamometer Manomet,=.r Flow meter of Carbon dioxide

Diesel

Fig. 1. Flow-charts

of the dual-fuel diesel engine operated by biogas.

Mixing of natural gas with carbon dioxide at different level of compositions was the main part of the experiment. Natural gas from the mains supply flowed through rotameter; and similarly carbon dioxide from a high pressure cylinder passed through gas flow meter before mixing in the mixing chamber. In order to avoid the formation of dry ice, a heater was attached to the out flow line of the carbon dioxide to heat the carbon dioxide gas. The engine was operated under dual-fuel principles; and accordingly, the air inlet system was modified in order to introduce the gaseous mixture with the air before being inducted inside the engine cylinder. 1008

WREC 1996 The engine was first started with diesel only, and then the required load and speed were attained. Thereafter, natural gas was introduced with the air which was done with simultaneous decrease of diesel flow to maintain the desired power. At certain percentage of diesel substitution by natural gas (15,30,50 and 75 %), the pure carbon dioxide was introduced with the natural gas. The power and speed were maintained at constant level by varying the quantity of diesel flow.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Experiments have been done with varying proportion of carbon dioxide in biogas on the performance of dual-fuel engine. As methane in the biogas is the main combustible, increase of carbon dioxide in biogas reduces the amount of methane entering the engine cylinder per cycle. To produce the same power supply of
6000
?? ?? ??

15% Subst.

?? ?? ??

30% Subst. 50% Subst. 75% Subst.

15% Subst. 30% Subst. 50% Subst. 15% Subst.

% Carbon dioxide Fig.2. Variation of biogas flow with the increase of carbon dioxide in biogas.

% Carbon Dioxide Fig.3. Variation of diesel flow with the increase of of carbon dioxide in biogas.

biogas in the engine needs to increase. Fig.2 shows that as the percentage carbon dioxide in biogas increases, the biogas supply to produce the same power also increases. The rate of increase of biogas at higher substitution is higher. Fig.3 and Fig.4 show the variation of diesel flow and bsfc with variation of carbon dioxide in the biogas. The effect of carbon 500 ) dioxide can been seen from the graphs. The carbon ?? 15% Subst. dioxide in the mixture may dissociate into carbon monoxide and oxygen, because the flame temperature 450 ?? 30% Subst. of diesel is very high to initiate dissociation. For n 50% Subst. with carbon dioxide at 1723 C and example, atmospheric pressure, 1.5 per cent weight of carbon dioxide dissociates into carbon monoxide and oxygen, At 2723 C and atmospheric pressure, 42.50 per cent is dissociated into carbon monoxide and oxygen (Balleny 1986). The higher flame temperature along with higher compression pressure may accelerate the dissociation of carbon dioxide in gaseous mixture into carbon monoxide and oxygen in the engine cylinder. It is 2oot.""...."...'"."'*.. evident that carbon monoxide is comparatively fast 40 50 10 20 30 0 burning gas than other alternative fuels (Zhanghou % Cabon Dioxide 1990), it can thus be speculated that the burning rate to the total gas air mixture might be accelerated for the Fig.4. Variation of bsfc with the increase of presence of carbon monoxide. Also the amount of carbon dioxide in biogas. oxygen found by dissociation from carbon dioxide increases the concentration of oxygen in the gas air mixture; thereby reducing the ignition delay as well as enhancing the combustion of unburned carbon particles. Under these conditions, the engine performance was found comparatively better with lower bsfcs and diesel flow rates. Therefore, the trend of the bsfcs curve is falling up to 20 to 30 per cent carbon dioxide
400 o

75% Subst.

1009

WRBC 1996 in the gaseous mixture. As the percentage of carbon dioxide becomes higher in the gaseous mixture, carbon dioxide remains undissociated. The undissociated carbon dioxide acts as inert gas. Addition of such inert eas affects the burning velocity of gas air mixture (Chigier 1981); thereby resultiig in incomplete combusti&; that may be the cause for the increase of bsfc. Therefore, from the same illustration, it is found that the trend of the bsfc curve is rising beyond certain (20 to 30) per cent of carbon dioxide being introduced into the natural gas.

CONCLUSIONS Biogas mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide. It is found in this research that presence of as high as 40% carbon dioxide in biogas did not deteriorate the engine performance much as compared to the performance of the engine with natural gas (96% methane), in dual-fuel mode. Presence of up to 30% carbon dioxide improved the engine performance as compared to the same running with natural gas. Provision should be made to flow adequate biogas for high carbon dioxide content. Scrubbing carbon dioxide from biogas is possible by methanation process, which is costly as well as energy consuming. Biogas containing more than 40% carbon dioxide needs scrubbing, because it is found in this research that the engine ran harshly with biogas containing high carbon dioxide (>40%). Through experiments and analysis, it is further proved that biogas from different feed stocks can be used as diesel substitute in diesel engine. This will not only save diesel fuel, but also biogas is renewable in nature, thereby not net contributors to the green house gases.

REFERENCES Ballaney, P. L. (1988). Internal combustion engines. Khanna Publishers, Delhi. Thesis. BUET., Bangladesh.

Biswas, W. K. (1994). Use of biogas as diesel engine fuel. M.Sc.Engineering Chigier, N. (1981). Energy, combustion, Goodger, E. M. (1980). Alternative and environment.

McGraw Hill Company, USA.

fuels, pp.40-42. The Macmillan Press Ltd., London.

Hobson, P. N., S. Bousfield and R. Summers. Methane production from agricultural and domestic wastes, p. 152. Applied Science, London. Jawurek, H. H., N. W. Lane and C. J. Rallis (1990). Biogas/Petrol third world use, Biomass, 13, 87-103. dual fueling of SI engine for rural

Zhanghou, J. (1990). Utilization and distribution of biogas. (Memeograph),

Tongi University,

China.

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