Influence of hydrolysis products on the performance in altitude of a gasoline and natural gas-fueled vehicle

Abstract

Introduction− There is a great interest in reducing the use of fossil fuels due to the variation of prices and strong regulatory controls, which is why methods are being sought to reduce fuel consumption in internal combustion engines, such as the supply of products from the Hydrolysis of the water in the engine manifold.Objective−The objective of this paper is to present the results of an experimental methodology applied to esti-mate the mechanical and environmental performance of a vehicle fueled with gasoline and natural gas, when the engine is supplied with products resulting from the hydrolysis of water.Methodology−For the supply of said products to the vehicle, an external hydrolysis device was installed, and the vehicle has been instrumented with a fifth wheel, temperature and engine revolutions speed sensors, to perform acceleration tests on a flat road and a road with longitudinal slope angle. Additionally, torque and power tests with a chassis dynamometer, and pollutant emis-sions and fuel consumption tests were carried out. The tests were conducted in the outskirts of the city of Bo-gotá DC - Colombia, located at 2650 m above sea level.Results− The results show that the products of hydro-lysis do not improve the mechanical performance of the vehicle, since they increase the time to arrive at the speeds defined in the acceleration tests up to 18% in the engine with gasoline and 7% in the engine with natural gas, and the torque and power are increase by around 1%. On the other hand, the results of the pollu-ting emissions tests indicate that fuel consumption is reduced by about 7%.Conclusions−The results indicate that the performance of the vehicle does not improve, although fuel consump-tion decreases, the environmental performance does not decrease

Keywords

• vehicle
• natural gas
• gasoline
• hydrolysis
• combustion
• performance