Parametric optimisation and performance evaluation of gasifier-CI engine on dual fuel and dual feed material gasification

Abstract

Gasification-based energy derived is one of the appealing resources for producing heat and power generation. The objective of this paper is to conduct an experimental study on downdraft air co-gasification of Madhuca longifolia wood and Indian low-grade coal (50:50 wt %) to generate producer gas and its application in dual-fuelled mode CI engine. Besides, the optimisation using the response surface methodology (RSM) has been applied to Gasifier-Engine to determine the best engine performance and emission response by optimising the input variables, i.e. gasifier equivalence ratio, engine compression ratio, and engine load. The RSM-based analysis predicted that optimum input operating parameters could be attained for co-gasification for Equivalence ratio (ER), compression ratio (CR), and engine load (EL) at 0.43, 16, and 100%, respectively. Based on optimal input variables, the performance response values of the gasifier-engine are 29.52% Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), 3.30 kW Brake power (BP), 0.3851 kg/kWh Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), 0.0186 vol% CO, 0.958 ppm UHC, 0.9768 vol % CO₂, and 109.415 ppm NOx. The results show that the projected regression model has a high accuracy of R² > 90% and a high correlation coefficient of 0.8927.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-gasification
• Mahua wood
• exhaust emission
• engine performance
• RSM
• ANOVA

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our gratitude to the IC engine lab at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) for their assistance in conducting the experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).