Reduction in CO Emission from Small Reciprocating Engine Operated with Wood Gasifier by Mixture LHV Changing

Abstract

In order to exchange the wood biomass energy for electric power with small capacity and high efficiency, it is most effective to use a reciprocating engine operated with a wood gasifier. On the other hand, such a small-capacity system is often installed in urban areas. Therefore, strict emission regulation should be observed. Normally, as the low heating value (LHV) of bio-syngas is small, the engine should be operated with a stoichiometric mixture to achieve a maximum power density. However, the emission with a stoichiometric mixture contains much unburned CO. This means that a stoichiometric mixture operation shows low efficiency and can’t observe the regulations. In this report, a mechanism of the unburned CO is considered, and a method to reduce the unburned CO ratio is shown with experimental results. In the experiment, a commercial reciprocating engine (4-stroke, modified single cylinder) is used. The bio-syngas, a producer gas from a fixed bed gasifier, is produced by a self-made wood pellet gasifier (fixed bed, auto thermal down-draft). The bio-syngas flow rate is calculated with the nitrogen ratio between input air and bio-syngas. The LHV is adjusted with the city gas (as an alternative to methane) and hydrogen. The CO volume ratio of the exhaust from the engine is more than 3 v% when the excess air ratio of bio-syngas/air mixture is 1.3, as the LHV of bio-syngas is less than 5.0 MJ/m3-LHV. On the other hand, the CO volume ratio of the exhaust under operation of the mixture, the bio-syngas, and methane with more than 7.0 MJ/m3-LHV was less than 0.2 v%. The CO in the exhaust with low LHV fuel means that the combustion is not finished in the chamber. The unburned ratio could be predicted in consideration of the gap/clearance as crevice, the temperature boundary layer, and the quenching distance.