Improving the lean performance of an n-butanol rotary engine by hydrogen enrichment

The present paper introduced an experiment survey focusing on exploring the impact of hydrogen enrichment on improving the lean-burn performance of an n-butanol rotary engine. During the test, the engine speed and intake pressure were roughly set at 4000 rpm and 35 kPa, respectively. A constant spark advance of 45 °CA was adopted through the test. Hydrogen volumetric fraction of the total intake was severally kept at 0% and 3%. The testing results manifested that the brake thermal efficiency and peak chamber temperature were heightened with hydrogen addition. Besides, the ignition delay and rapid combustion duration were both reduced with the hydrogen additive. Engine running stability gained an improvement by hydrogen supplement. Moreover, HC and CO emissions from the original n-butanol rotary engine were reduced after hydrogen adding. NOx emissions were increased with hydrogen enrichment while reduced with the increase of excess air ratio. This indicated that NOx emissions from both the n-butanol and hydrogen-blended n-butanol rotary engines could be reduced by lean combustion strategies.