Hydrogen as an alternative fuel has many distinctive features when used in a Spark Ignition (SI) engine. Exhaustive tests carried out at Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi have proven the potential of using hydrogen as an alternative fuel in existing designs of engines. Thermal efficiency gets improved as compared to gasoline engines and the exhaust emission characteristics demonstrate a remarkable improvement. Carbon Monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HCs) are almost absent.NO_x is the only pollutant observed in exhaust gas which can be drastically reduced by operating the engine in lower ranges of equivalence ratio.
Several modes of fuel induction techniques were experimentally evaluated in IIT Delhi to ensure smooth engine combustion without any symptoms of undesirable combustion phenomena such as backfire. Tests were conducted in a research engine in the laboratory and timed port injection proved to be a very effective technique in preventing the tendency of backfire in the engine. Extensive tests were carried out determine the influence of spark timing on the engine emission and combustion characteristics such as engine cylinder pressure, heat release rate, MBF as well as NO_x emissions .