Date of Award

7-2006

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Bade Shrestha

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

An alternative fuel research facility was developed to study different alternative gaseous fuels like Landfill gases and Biogases and their mixtures with hydrogen as a fuel in a single cylinder spark ignition engine. Landfill gas was used as a fuel and the optimum process parameters such as compression ratio, spark timing and equivalence ratio were identified and reported.

Hydrogen enhanced combustion of landfill gas was studied and it was found that the addition of small amounts of hydrogen in the land fill gas has improved the combustion characteristics of the fuel and the performance of the spark ignition engine in general. Some interesting results while adding very small quantities of hydrogen in the landfill gas were found to improve the performance and thermal efficiency to significant levels which will be useful for the land fill gas to electricity (LFGTE) industry projects.

A computer model was also developed for the prediction of the combustion process of the landfill gas as a fuel for a spark ignition engine.

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