Effects of oxyhydrogen gas induction on the performance of a small-capacity diesel engine

Compression ignition engines are one of the world’s largest consumers of fossil oil but have energy extraction efficiency limited to 35%. Addition of hydrogen alongside diesel fuel has been found to improve engine performance and efficiency; however, after a certain limit, hydrogen begins to show adverse effects, mainly because the ratio of oxygen to fuel decreases. This can be overcome by using oxyhydrogen, which is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas. In this study, effects of addition of oxyhydrogen generated by electrolysis, with varying flows at the intake manifold, on a 315 cc compression ignition engine alongside diesel were analyzed. The engine was mounted on a Thepra test bed and torque measurements were taken at predetermined test points for diesel and 6 and 10 standard cubic feet per hour flowrates of oxyhydrogen. H10 showed the maximum improvement in engine performance equating to a 22.4% increase in both torque and power at 3000 r/min, and a 19.4% increase in efficiency at 2600 r/min was recorded. The large increase in engine performance as compared to previous results is because of high oxyhydrogen flowrate to displacement volume ratio. The oxyhydrogen flowrate to displacement ratio is the most important factor as it is directly impacts engine performance. The difference in engine performance because of oxyhydrogen becomes prominent at higher engine speed due to high suction pressure. No experimental flowrates of oxyhydrogen showed any adverse effect on the engine performance.