Driving characteristics of a motorcycle fuelled with hydrogen-rich gas produced by an onboard plasma reformer

The driving performance and emission characteristics of a 125 cc motorcycle equipped with an onboard plasma reformer for producing hydrogen-rich gas were investigated. Butane with suitable air flow rate was induced into the plasma reformer to produce hydrogen-rich gas, which was used as supplementary fuel for the internal combustion engine. The motorcycle was run under steady and transient conditions on a chassis dynamometer to assess the driving performance and exhaust emissions.Prior to the driving, the operation parameters of the plasma reformer were optimized in a series of tests and the results were an O2/C ratio of 0.55 and a butane supply rate of 1.16 L/min. It was shown that under a constant speed of 40 km/h, with the CO and HC emissions similar to that of the original engine, the NOx emission was found to be improved by 56.8%. During transient driving condition, the improvement of 16%–41% in NOx concentration was achieved by adding hydrogen-rich gas. The emissions of the motorcycle were also analyzed on a chassis dynamometer tracing an ECE-40 driving pattern. The NOx emission was improved by 34% as was the HC emission by 4.08%, although the CO emission was increased. Simultaneously, the acceleration characteristics of the vehicle were tested, and were similar under both fuelling systems.