Investigation of the influence of hydrogen used in internal combustion engines on exhaust emission

The high degree of the world’s dependency on energy related with the expected future depletion of the worldwide petroleum reserves has led to big efforts in search for alternative energy sources such as nuclear, geothermal, biomass source etc. Alcohols, biomass based fuels, either single or blended with conventional petroleum based fuels are the most important alternative fuels for internal combustion engines [1]. Ecological environment and pollution is one of many problems solved in vehicles production that cause the rice of ecological requirements. Now we have standard Euro V [16]. The previous detailed investigations [7, 10] demonstrate than regulation of fuel supply system is not simple according to exhaust emission parameters like CO, HC, and O2, and the air-fuel ratio is not homologous to these parameters. The outer characteristics, power and torque of internal combustion engines, are associated with ecological requirements by decreasing their limit values, because we cannot adjust performance of the fuel supply system to optimal characteristics when ecological requirements should be satisfied. Ecological requirements create special difficulties when solving the problem of alternative fuels using in internal combustion engines. The analysis of environment pollution is very complicated, because many factors have an influence on exhaust emission contents [14]. The problem of energy resources is the theme considered with growing attention every year on a world scale. Crisis shaking economy of the whole planet motivates to deal with the issue of energy resources much deeper. Vehicle manufacturers are more often talking about alternative energy resources and alternative cars: electro-mobiles, bio-fuel-driven engines, hydrogen internal combustion aggregates. The greatest vehicle manufacturers invest hundreds of millions into the investigation of a hydrogen engine. Specialists make predictions that hydrogen is almost an inexhaustible resource, without any pollution of environment; just we need to improve hydrogen extraction ways [9 – 11]. Efficiency of an internal combustion engine is improved by fuel enrichment with hydrogen. This is achieved by hydrogen injection into fuel mixture in the intake manifold [4, 8]. With hydrogen used as an additive for traditional fuels, characteristics of an internal combustion engine become higher, i.e. engine Keršys A, KAlisinsKAs D, PuKAlsKAs s, VilKAusKAs A, Keršys r, MAKArAs r. investigation of the influence of hydrogen used in internal combustion engines on exhaust emission. eksploatacja i niezawodnosc – Maintenance and reliability 2013; 15 (4): 384–389.