Fuel and Combustion

Fuel and Combustion

An Experimental Comparison of Spark Ignition Engine with Gasoline and Natural Gas Fuels

Authors
Rahim Ebrahimi
Shahin Besharati
Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Machinery Mechanics, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran
Abstract
In this study, a number of tests were conducted on gasoline and natural gas engines with the spark timing adjusted to the maximum brake torque timing in various equivalence ratios. We used natural gas with a heating value 13.6% lower than gasoline. Based on the experimental results, the variation of maximum brake torque versus equivalence ratio for gasoline operation was found to be higher than that of natural gas operation. The difference in brake thermal efficiency between the natural gas and the gasoline operation in low equivalence ratio was observed to be higher than that in the high equivalence ratio. Also it was realized that, unlike the maximum brake torque and the brake thermal efficiency, the brake specific fuel consumption is strongly dependent on the lower heating values of gasoline and natural gas fuels. With a rise in the equivalence ratio, the variations in the water outlet and inlet temperature, the exhaust gas temperature and the exhaust valve seat temperature initially increase and then decrease. Although the exhaust gas temperature of gasoline operation is higher than that of natural gas, the exhaust valve seat temperature is higher for natural gas operation than for gasoline operation.
Keywords
Engine performance
Equivalence ratio
Engine temperature
Natural gas engine
Gasoline engine
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