Proceedings of the

International Conference on Power Engineering-03

(ICOPE-03) November 9-13, 2003, Kobe, Japan

PERFORMANCE STUDIES OF A BIOGAS FUELED DIESEL ENGINE

OPERATING IN A DUAL FUEL MODE
M. Z. Haq*, M. H. Rahman ** and Z. A. Bhutto

*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka

**901 Central Workshop, EME, Bangladesh Army, Dhaka Cantonment

Adhoc Field Workshop, EME, Bangladesh Army, Dhaka Cantonment

ABSTRACT The present paper reports the experimental and modeling studies of a 4-cylinder, 4-stroke, direct
injection diesel engine. Study is carried out for two modes of operations one with straight diesel fueling and
another in dual-fuel mode using natural gas and biogas of two compositions with a fixed amount of pilot diesel
injection for the ignition of the charge. Both experiments and simulations are carried out for different engine
speeds at different loading conditions. The results obtained from the simulations are in reasonable agreement
with the experimental results; however, neglect of detailed combustion in the model resulted in higher rated
power estimate of the engine. Lower cylinder gas pressure and higher bulk gas temperatures are obtained in case
of fueling by natural gas, and these quantities decrease with increase in the carbon dioxide content of biogas.

Keywords: Diesel engine, Alternative fuels, Heat release, Natural gas, Biogas.

and 50% methane + 50% carbon dioxide is denoted by

1. INTRODUCTION
Existing stationary diesel engines can be retrofitted
fairly easily for operation with alternative gaseous fuels,
such as natural gas and biogas. Natural gas is now being
widely used to fuel combustion engines, however its reserve
is limited in many areas of the world. Hence, biogas is a
potential alternative fuel that is renewable in nature and
thereby does not contribute to the net atmospheric
concentration of the green house gas carbon dioxide. It is a
colorless combustible gas produced by the fermentation of
cellulose materials, manure or cow-dung [1]. Methane and
carbon dioxide constitute about 95% of biogas and rests are
trace organic/non-organic elements of variable
compositions. Moreover, the amount of methane and
carbon dioxide in biogas varies with the sources of origin
and the variation affects combustion process and heat
release rates [2]. Fortunately, same reaction mechanism can
be used to model both methane and biogas combustion [3],
and modeled methane combustion data is very consistent
with the available experimental results [4]. Hence,
comprehensive engine modeling and simulation is possible
where the various engine-operating parameters can be
studied to obtain optimum condition [5]. The modeled data
also provides valuable insight into the complex inter-
relationship characterizing diesel engine operation.
The present paper reports the performance studies,
both experimental and modeling, of a direct injection diesel
engine for two modes of operations one with straight
diesel fueling and another in dual-fuel mode using natural
gas and biogas of two compositions (on volumetric basis,
70% methane + 30% carbon dioxide is denoted by BG30,
BG50). Study is carried out for four different engine speeds
of 2100, 2200, 2250 and 2300 rpm at different loading
conditions, and various engine performance parameters are
analyzed.
2. HEAT RELEASE
In general, literature reports the maximum amount of
heat available from stoichiometric combustion of unit mass
of fuel, known as heating value. However, practical
combustion processes are not essentially stoichiometric, and
heat release depends on the equivalence ratio, . Therefore,
two useful definitions of heat release quantity at standard
condition of 0.1MPa pressure and 25oC are:
1. Specific energy, SE net heat available from charge of
unit mass (kJ/kg-charge), and
2. Energy density, ED net heat available from charge of
unit volume (kJ/m3-charge).
Shown in Fig. 1 are the heating values of methane,
gasoline, diesel and biogas of two compositions. It is seen
that the heating values of biogas are significantly lower than
those of hydrocarbon fuels and the deviation is higher for
higher carbon dioxide content of biogas. Shown in Figs. 2
and 3 are the variations of specific energy and energy
density, respectively, plotted as a function of equivalence
ratio for the same fuels. It is observed that the heat release
for a given amount of charge depends on both equivalence
ratio and the fuel itself, and the heat releases from biogas
premixtures are significantly lower than those of the
hydrocarbon based fuels and the deviation increases with
increase in its carbon dioxide content.
 varied by regulating the gas flow rates. The pilot fuel
injection in case of gaseous fuels are required because of
70
the auto-ignition temperature of methane (540oC) which is
Higher Heating Value Lower Heating Value
60 significantly higher than diesel (260oC) and the temperature
Heating Value (MJ/Kg fuel)

50
generated from the compression of the air inside the engine
cylinder is not sufficient for the ignition of the charge [6].
40 A schematic diagram of the engine setup is shown in Fig. 4.
30 All measuring instruments are calibrated using relevant
standard procedures. Experimental procedures reported in
20
[7] are used as general guideline for experimentation.
10 British Standard BS-5514, equivalent to ISO Standard 3046
0 and SAE Standard J1349 [8], has been used for de-rating
Gasoline Diesel Methane BG30 BG50 the engine brake power and fuel consumption rates. Details
of the experimental procedure are described in [9].
An engine model, with similar configuration to the
Fig. 1. Heating values of diesel, gasoline, methane and experimental engine, is also simulated using commercial
biogas of two compositions. engine simulation software GT-Power [10]. A schematic
diagram of the important components of the model is shown
in Fig. 5. In the present modeling, direct injection Weibe
3.0 combustion model is used to impose the combustion rates
using a three term Weibe function as outlined in [10], and
SE (MJ/Kg of Charge)

2.5
the superposition of three functions make it possible to
model pre-ignition and larger tail present in the typical
diesel engine heat release profile [11]. Chen-Flynn friction
2.0 model [12] is used to calculate engine friction and Woschni
heat transfer correlation [13] is used to estimate the heat
1.5 Gasoline Diesel Methane
transfer from the cylinder, while Colburn analogy [14] is
BG30 BG50 used to predict convective heat transfer coefficient in ducts
1.0
and pipes forming the intake and exhaust manifolds.
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Various parameters required in the modeling are selected as
per guidelines presented in [10]. In all cases of the
modeling, ambient air is assumed to be at BS-5514 standard
condition (0.1 MPa pressure, 300 K temperature and 60%
Fig. 2. Specific energy of fuel-air premixtures.
relative humidity) and modeling is carried out for the same
conditions as those of the experiments. Details of the model
and the simulations are reported in [15].
4.0

3.5 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

ED (MJ/m of Charge)

3.0
Shown in Figs. 6 and 7 are the cylinder gas pressures
2.5 and bulk gas temperatures, respectively, of the diesel engine
3

2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
Fig. 3. Energy density of fuel-air premixtures.
3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND ENGINE MODEL
Experiments are carried out in a 4-stroke, 4-cylinder
direct injection diesel engine, specification of which is
presented in Appendix-I. Diesel has been feed to the
injector pump under gravity, and gaseous fuels are supplied
to the intake manifold of the engine by fumigation method.
In case of fueled by gaseous fuels, a fixed amount of diesel
(2kg/hr) is injected directly into the engine cylinder as a
pilot fuel to ignite the charge and the engine loads are
generating approximately same amount of output power
when it is fueled by diesel, natural gas and biogas of two
Gasoline Diesel Methane compositions. It is seen that, peak cylinder gas pressure,
B30 B50
Pmax, is the highest for diesel fuel that is followed by natural
gas, BG30 and BG50. However, in case of bulk gas
temperatures, natural gas produced the highest peak
temperature and the diesel operations produced the lowest
one. In cases of both temperatures and pressures, biogas
produced lower values than the corresponding natural gas
values and the deviations increase with increase in carbon
dioxide content of biogas. The lower pressure and higher
temperatures generated in case of natural gas operations are
in line with the experimental observations made in the
present study [9]. Shown in Fig. 8 are the indicator
diagrams for the same conditions as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
It is seen that, indicator diagrams are very close to each
other because of the fact that similar amount of heat
addition with different fuels produced similar amount of
brake power, and thereby estimated brake thermal
efficiencies are also close to each other.
 Fig. 4. Experimental setup showing the major instrumentation.

Fig. 5. GT-Power model of the engine.

TDC BDC TDC BDC

8 1800
Fuel Qin Pb b Pmax
Cylinder Gas Pressure (MPa)

7 1600
Bulk Gas Temperature (K)

(kW) (kW) (%) (MPa)

6 Diesel 48.3 17.7 36.6 7.2
NG 50.3 18.2 36.1 7.0 1400
5 BG30 50.3 17.9 35.9 6.9
BG50 50.3 17.4 35.7 6.8 1200
4
Fuel Qin Pb b Tmax
3 1000
Start of injection

(kW) (kW) (%) (K)

2 Diesel 48.3 17.7 36.6 1714
800 NG 50.3 18.2 36.1 1784
1 BG30 50.3 17.9 35.9 1750
600 BG50 50.3 17.4 35.7 1693
0
-30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Crankshaft Angle (deg) Crankshaft Angle (deg)

Fig. 6. Cylinder gas pressures for similar output power for Fig. 7. Cylinder gas temperatures for similar output power
different fuels used, engine speed is 2250 rpm. for different fuels used, engine speed is 2250 rpm.

8
Fuel Qin
Cylinder Gas Pressure (MPa)
(kW)
6 Diesel 48.3
NG 50.3
BG30 50.3
4 BG50 50.3
2
0 represent genuine engine design differences and are not
0.0 0.1 0.2
Displacement Volume (litre)
Fig. 8. Indicator diagrams for different fuels used.
Shown in Fig. 9 are the variations of brake specific
fuel consumption, bsfc, with brake power, Pb, at different
test conditions when the engine is fueled by diesel only. It
is seen that bsfc is high at part loading and its value
decreases with increase in the brake power until the brake
power reaches the rated value where the bsfc is minimum
and any further increase in brake power results in higher
bsfc. The values of bsfc for the slower engine operation
shows lower values at part load condition, and the situation
is found to be reversed at overload condition. It is also
observed that the rated power increases with engine speed,
within the speed range considered in the present study.
This behavior of bsfc vs brake power can be explained by
considering the different components involved in frictional
losses: a significant fraction of total frictional loss is
directly related to the engine speed, a fraction of the total is
directly related to the peak engine cylinder pressure while a
fraction of the total loss remains essentially constant [15].
At low load conditions, the effect of engine cylinder
pressure is not significant, rather the frictional losses are
dictated by the energy consumed in moving the shafts,
valves and pumps, and these losses increase with speed.
Therefore, at low load conditions, bsfc is low for low speed
operations. However, at higher load, the effect of peak
cylinder pressure becomes more significant and peak
engine pressure for slower engine operations are higher for
the same power generation and hence higher frictional
losses. Moreover, at higher engine speed less heat is lost
through the cooling system. Therefore, at high-speed
operations, values of bsfc's are lower for rated power
conditions. However, beyond the rated power, supply of air
is not sufficient to ensure complete burning because of the
heterogeneous mixture of air and fuel, and in case of overall
stoichiometric mixture some portion of the charge starve
from oxygen to complete the combustion. Therefore, at
rated load, average mixture is always lean and beyond the
rated load conditions, combustion is not completed and
some of the energy input is lost in the form of incomplete
combustion products and results in higher values of bsfc's.
Brake specific fuel consumption, bsfc, is also a
measure of engine overall efficiency, generally expressed
as brake thermal efficiency, b, and theses quantifies are
inversely related, so that the lower the bsfc, the higher the
efficiency of the engine. However, for different fuels
having different heating values, the values of bsfc's might
be misleading in indicating engine performance. Therefore,
brake thermal efficiency is employed in the analyses of
Pb b Pmax engine performance when the engine is fueled by
(kW) (%) (MPa) alternative fuels such as natural gas and biogas. In the
17.7 36.6 7.2
present analysis, brake mean effective pressure, bmep, is
18.2 36.1 7.0
17.9 35.9 6.9 used instead of brake power, Pb. The bmep removes the
17.4 35.7 6.8 effect of the engine size, and this quantity is roughly
comparable even in very different engines, as different
engines burn the same fuel, necessarily under
approximately the same conditions and hence generate
similar pressures, and the differences is bmep are known to
0.3 0.4
irrelevant differences such as size [16]. For spark ignition
engines, maximum values of bmeps are in the range of
0.85 to 1.05 MPa at the engine speed where maximum
torque is obtained and at the maximum rated power, bmep
values are 10 to 15% lower. For naturally aspirated diesel
engines, the bmep is in the 0.7 to 0.9 MPa range, with the
bmep at the maximum rated power of about 0.7 MPa [11].
300
290
280
N (rpm) Vp (m/s)
bsfc (g/kW-hr)
270 2100 5.74
260 2200 6.01
2250 6.15
250
2300 6.29
240
230
220
5 10 15 20 25
Pb (kW)
Fig. 9. Brake specific fuel consumption of diesel for
different engine speeds.
Figure 10 shows the brake thermal efficiency plotted
as a function of bmep for straight diesel operation. Brake
thermal efficiencies, as shown in Figs. 11-13, have trend
similar to the diesel fueling as shown in Fig. 10, when the
diesel is substituted partially by natural gas, BG30 and
BG50. Both the experimental and modeled results are
plotted in these figures. It is seen that, in case of pure
diesel operation as shown in Fig. 10, the experimental
values of the brake thermal efficiency increases with
increase in bmep until it reaches its maximum value at the
rated brake power of the engine corresponding to that
speed. Beyond the rated power, brake thermal efficiency is
reduced because of the decrease of combustion efficiency
resulting from the shortage of oxygen required to burn the
fuel completely. In case of natural gas fueling, as shown in
Fig. 11, the efficiency continues to increase even beyond
the rated power for the diesel operation. It is because of the
increased combustion efficiency resulted from the
combustion of premixed natural gas which is inducted into
the intake manifold by fumigation method. It is possible to
significantly overload the engine when fueled by natural
gas, however with a potential to damaged engine caused by
overheating. Engine efficiency is slightly reduced in case
of biogas fueling, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Moreover,
the modeled results show the reduction of power for higher 40
carbon dioxide in biogas which is due to the presence of 38
carbon dioxide that does not supply any energy but absorbs 36
some heat when exhausted in the form of raised 34
temperature. 32

b (%)
In the results plotted in Fig. 10-13, it is seen that the 30 N (rpm) Model Expt.
28 2100
modeled values are within 2-3% of the experimental results
26 2200
up to the rated engine power and the modeling predicts 2250
24
higher thermal efficiency in all cases considered. 22 2300
Moreover, in case of straight diesel fueling the modeling 20
also failed to show any noticeable decrease in thermal 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
efficiency beyond the rated power because of its limitation bmep (MPa)
to model real combustion that causes the efficiency to be
reduced beyond the rated power because of the Fig. 12. Brake thermal efficiencies for different engine
heterogeneous nature of the charge. However, for gaseous speeds when the engine is fueled by biogas BG30 and pilot
fuel operations as shown in Figs. 11-13, slight reduction in diesel fuel.
thermal efficiencies beyond some higher rated powers can
be anticipated. Practically negligible engine speed effect is
observed in the results shown in Figs. 10-13, where brake
thermal efficiencies are plotted as a function of brake mean
40
effective pressure. Hence, these plots emphasize the 38
importance of the uses of bmep rather than brake power in 36
engine data representation which provide a more useful 34
basis for extending the results for engines of different sizes 32
b (%)

and speeds. 30
N (rpm) Model Expt.
28
2100
26
2200
40 24 2250
38 22 2300
36 20
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
34
32 bmep (MPa)
b (%)

30
N (rpm) Model Expt.
28 Fig. 13. Brake thermal efficiencies for different engine
2100
26 speeds when the engine is fueled by biogas BG50 and pilot
2200
24
2250 diesel fuel.
22 2300
20
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
bmep (MPa)
5. CONCLUSIONS
Fig. 10. Brake thermal efficiencies for different engine
speeds when the engine is fueled by straight diesel. Major conclusions of the present study are:
1. Diesel fuel can be partially substituted by natural gas
and biogas in diesel engines. The conversion to dual-
fuel mode by fumigation method demands only simple
40
modification of the engine intake system. However,
38 pilot diesel injection is required to ignite the charge as
36 methane has higher auto-ignition temperature than that
34 of diesel.
32 2. With modest efforts, it is possible to use GT-Power
b (%)

30 N (rpm) Model Expt. code to model diesel engines with gaseous alternative
28 2100 fuels such as natural gas and biogas. Results thus
26 2200 obtained are also in reasonable agreement with the
24 2250
experimental results.
22 2300
3. Modeling and simulation using GT-Power provide
20
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 valuable insight into the complex inter-relationship
characterizing diesel engine operations. Once the
bmep (MPa)
model is verified against the experimental results, it
can be used to study the effects of various engine
Fig. 11. Brake thermal efficiencies for different engine operating parameters for optimum engine performance.
speeds when the engine is fueled by natural gas and pilot 4. Modeling with the neglect of details of combustion
diesel fuel. processes results in higher rated capacity estimate of
 the diesel engine for the fuels considered in the present
study.
5. Lower cylinder gas pressure and higher bulk gas
temperature are generated in case of Diesel engine
fueled by primarily natural gas. These quantities
decrease with increase in carbon dioxide content of the
biogas.
Engine with Biogas/Diesel Dual Fueling for Optimized
Performance, M.Sc. thesis (2003), Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology.
16. Lumley, J. L., Engines An Introduction, (1999),
Cambridge University Press.

8. APPENDIX-I

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Engine Specifications

Model : Kubota V1502B,
The authors are grateful to Dr. Syed Wahiduzzaman Type : Vertical, water cooled,
of Gamma Technologies for providing the GT-Power 4-cylinder, diesel engine
software to Department of Mechanical Engineering, BUET. Bore x Stroke : 76 mm x 82 mm
Total displacement : 1487 cc
Compression ratio : 21
Rated power : 17 kW at 2250 rpm
7. REFERENCES Fuel injection pump : Bosch K type
Fuel injection : at 12.5 bTDC
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Resources, (1980), McMillian Press Ltd., UK. Combustion chamber : Spherical
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Release and Exhaust Products of Biogas-Air
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Methane-Air Mixtures, Combustion and Flame, Vol. BG30 Biogas containing 30% carbon dioxide -
121, (2000), pp. 41-58. and 70% methane, by volume
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Combustion Engines Applied Thermosciences, ED Energy density kJ/m3
(2001), John Wiley and Sons, Inc., NY. N Engine speed Rpm
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11. Heywood, J. B., Internal Combustion Engine
Fundamentals, (1988), McGraw-Hill Book Company,
N.Y.
12. Chen, S. K. and Flynn, P. F., Development of a Single
Cylinder Compression Ignition Research Engine, SAE
Paper 650733 (1965).
13. Woschni, G., A Universally Applicable Equation for
the Instantaneous Heat Transfer Coefficient in the
Internal Combustion Engine, SAE Paper 670931
(1967).
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and Mass Transfer, (2001), John Wiley and Sons, N.Y.
15. Bhutto, Z. A., Comprehensive Modeling of Diesel