Study on performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder diesel engine using exhaust gas recirculation

Exhaust gas re-circulation is a method used in compression ignition engines to control and reduce NO, emission. These emissions are controlled by reducing the oxygen concentration inside the cylinder and thereby reducing the flame temperature of the charge mixture inside the combustion chamber. In the present investigation, experiments were performed to study the effect of exhaust gas recirculation on performance and emission characteristics in a four stroke single cylinder, water cooled and constant speed diesel engine. The experiments were performed to study the performance and emissions for different exhaust gas recirculation ratios of the engine. Performance parameters such as brake thermal efficiency, indicated thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, total fuel consumption and emission parameters such as oxides of nitrogen, unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and smoke opacity were measured. Reductions in NOx and CO2 were observed but other emissions like HC, CO, and smoke opacity were found to have increased with the usage of exhaust gas recirculation. The 15% exhaust gas re-circulation was found optimum for the engine in the aspects of performance and emission.