Testing sodium borohydride as a fuel additive in internal combustion gasoline engine

Abstract

Additives are added to conventional fuels to ensure complete combustion of fuels, increase engine performance and reduce harmful emissions from vehicles. Hydrogen and oxygen-containing fuel additives added to fossil-based internal combustion engine fuels improve the properties of the fuels and reduce vehicle-related emissions. Evaluation of mixed fuels created by adding different types of alcohol and nano-sized additives to motor fuels as an alternative fuel in motor vehicles is among the most researched scientific studies recently. In this study, alcohol-gasoline fuels (E5, M5), NaBH4-alcohol-gasoline fuels (ES5, MS5), and pure gasoline were tested in a gasoline engine. Fuels used in engine tests; E5 fuel (5% by volume ethanol 95% gasoline blend), M5 fuel (5% by volume methanol 95% gasoline blend), ES5 fuel (5% by volume NaBH4-ethanol solution 95% gasoline blend), MS5 fuel (5% by volume NaBH4-methanol solution 95% gasoline mixture) and pure gasoline. In the experiments, brake thermal efficiency, engine torque, specific fuel consumption, and exhaust gas temperature were measured and compared with pure gasoline. Compared to gasoline, the exhaust gas temperatures of all blended fuels decreased. On the other hand, there was an increase in engine torque values, except for ES5 fuel. At the same time, there was an increase in both specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency. When the CO and HC emission values of the blended fuels are compared with the gasoline fuel values, the highest reduction in CO emissions occurred in ES5 blended fuel with 65.53%, while the highest decrease in HC emission was realized in E5 fuel with 19.09%. On the other hand, when NOx and CO2 emissions of E5, M5, ES5, MS5 mixed fuels are compared with gasoline, NOx emissions are 12.63%, 28.37%, 19.65%, respectively; decreased by 36.03% but CO2 emissions increased by 8.51%, 30.46%, 34.48%, 25.95% respectively. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd