Exergy analysis of an automotive engine fueled with natural gas: effect of the conversion kit configuration and the ignition system

Abstract

A research program was conducted to study the effects of the configuration of the conversion kit and some ignition parameters on the performance of an automotive bi-fuel engine fueled with natural gas. This work presents the results of an exergy analysis of the engine under five load conditions for each configuration. The most convenient configuration was determined from the exergy efficiency and exergy destruction. It was found that mixer size has no significant effect on engine efficiency whereas its location and the regulator size have an important effect. In addition, some ignition parameters were studied with the selected configuration. It was found that there is a moderate effect on the exergy balance terms. Also, the exergy efficiency could be improved by ca. 11%.

Keywords

• Exergy analysis
• Vehicular natural gas
• bi-fuel engines