Syngas can be used in many applications both to produce methanol and to produce electricity. This study focuses on the application of syngas in the internal combustion engine to generate power. The fluctuation is due to many factors such as the operating conditions of the gasifier as well as the types of raw material used.
The general findings were that Composition B showed a higher power output and brake thermal efficiency as well as lower exhaust temperature. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Mechanical Engineering Department of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS to support and enable all students to complete this compulsory course of Final Year Project. I would like to express my greatest appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Ir Dr Shaharin Anwar Sulaiman, for his excellent support, patience, invaluable guidance and advice throughout this project.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to my family and thank them for their unconditional support and encouragement throughout the duration of the project.
INTRODUCTION
- Background of Study
- Problem Statement
- Objectives and Scope of Study . 3
- Gasification
- Syngas and its Application in ICE . 6
Malaysia is one of the largest producers of palm oil as a result of its large palm oil plantations (Muhammad, 2008). Gasification is one of the possible technological options that could optimally convert the energy in this waste to generate electricity. The study includes evaluating the performance and emissions of the engine and determining the appropriate syngas composition to allow good combustion.
Sims (2002) states that biomass can be defined as recent organic matter originally derived from plants as a result of the photosynthetic conversion process, or from animals, destined to be used as a store of chemical energy to provide heat , electricity, or transport fuels. The resulting chemical breakdown of the fuel and internal reactions result in a combustible gas, usually called syngas. The gasifier and gasifier operating temperature and pressure affect the chemical composition, heating value and end uses of the gasification product gas.
There are also other factors that can affect the quality of the product gas, such as feedstock composition, feedstock preparation and particle size, reactor heating rate, and plant configuration (Rezaiyan and Cheremisinoff, 2005). Internal combustion engines (ICE) are one of the most widespread propulsion systems for biomass fuels. The system was feasible in terms of energy, but there were mechanical problems such as bridging the biomass fuel in the hopper and inefficient operation of the gas cleaning chain (Sims, 2002).
Their research gives significant value to this study as it will be a good reference in terms of the result. From the simulation results, it was found that the mass fractions of the main fuel components of the syngas; CO, H2 and CH4 are higher at lower air fuel ratio, higher oxidation temperature and lower operating pressure values below 5 bar. For other temperature and pressure, multiply the air mass flow by the above equation to obtain the corrected air mass flow.
Thus, the mass airflow obtained in Figure 2.2 was multiplied by Equation 2.1 to obtain the corrected mass airflow. The mass flow of the mixture going into the engine was then calculated by adding the mass flow of air and the mass flow of each gas. The ratio between the actual mass flow rate and the ideal value is called volumetric efficiency.
The symbol ̇ refers to the mass flow rate of the mixture, which can be measured directly. An estimate of the heat loss to the exhaust can be made by measuring the difference between exhaust gas (Te) and ambient temperature (Ta), and assuming a typical value of 1 kJ/kgK for the specific heat of the exhaust gas.
METHODOLOGY
Basic Engine Testing
For these basic tests, diesel fuel was used to obtain the standard result without any modification to the engine. In addition to the instruments necessary for measuring engine performance, it also contains the fuel system and the airbox/viscous flow meter used to measure air consumption. The setup consists of gas cylinders connected to the engine's air intake valve.
The premixing of air and gases took place outside the engine before entering the air intake valve. This time, however, the installation was connected to the engine, causing the gases to flow to the engine and combustion to take place. After the engine stabilized, the nitrogen throttle was opened to allow gas to flow into the engine.
Hydrogen gas is highly flammable, so it must be the last gas to flow into the engine. The volumetric flow rate represents the amount of gas that entered the engine and therefore represents the composition of the gas. The composition was obtained from the volume flow rate of each gas, where it was assumed that the rate of gas flowing through the flowmeter is the amount of gas that entered the engine.
From the three tables in section 4.1, engine performance can be evaluated based on exhaust gas temperature, braking power, mixture/fuel ratio, specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency and exhaust heat loss percentage. This may be due to the incomplete combustion of the syngas in the combustion chamber. Some of the unburned fuel escapes into the exhaust manifold and combustion takes place in the exhaust manifold, causing the exhaust temperature to become high.
From Figure 4.2, composition B produced the highest amount of current compared to the other two conditions. Brake thermal efficiency refers to the measure of the maximum overall efficiency of energy conversion. Volumetric efficiency in this study refers to the amount of air n gas mixtures that the engine can pull in or specifically the ratio of the actual mass flow of air and gas mixtures to the ideal mass flow.
From Figure 4.6, Composition A has the lowest volumetric efficiency which means that not much of the air-gas mixture is absorbed into the engine and leads to lower power output. The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of the engine using simulated gas and diesel as fuel.
