Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Effect of compressed natural gas dual fuel operation with diesel and
Pongamia pinnata methyl ester (PPME) as pilot fuels on performance
and emission characteristics of a CI (compression ignition) engine
Abhishek Paul a, *, Raj Sekhar Panua a, Durbadal Debroy a, Probir Kumar Bose b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Agartala 799055, India

Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 5 October 2013
Received in revised form
26 February 2014
Accepted 6 March 2014
Available online 31 March 2014

The experimental work presents a comparative study of performance and emission using Pongamia
pinnata methyl ester (PPME) and Diesel as pilot fuel in a CI (compression ignition) engine with compressed natural gas (CNG) as the primary fuel. The results show that PPMEeCNG dual fuel operation is
more effective than DieseleCNG dual fuel operation in improving the performance and emission characteristics of the engine. CNG is found to share higher quantity of input energy with PPME pilot operation
than pilot Diesel operation. Low amount of CNG injection also increases the brake thermal efciency of
the engine. PPMEeCNG operations with low amount of CNG injections are also more instrumental in
reducing CO (carbon monoxide) emission and smoke opacity than DieseleCNG operations. NOx emission
from the engine is found to increase a bit for PPMEeCNG operations in comparison to DieseleCNG
operation. PPMEeCNG operation is also more effective in reducing hydrocarbon emission than Diesel
eCNG operations. The study also shows that CNG injected at 10
ATDC (after top dead center) for a
duration of about 4500 ms with PPME as pilot fuel can produce better performance and emission signatures than DieseleCNG operation. The tradeoff study also consolidates the fact that PPMEeCNG dual
fuel operation is instrumental in resolving the high performanceelow emission paradox.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
DieseleCNG combination
PPMEeCNG combination
BSFC diesel equivalent
NOx reduction
Pongamia pinnata methyl ester
Performanceeemission tradeoff

1. Introduction
Compression ignition engines take a very important role in
modern transportation and power generation sector owing to their
higher thermal efciency, excellent fuel economy and low emissions of unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide (CO). However, these engines greatly affect the environmental aspects
because of their high NOx and particulate matter emissions [1].
Moreover, the ever-quenching petroleum reserves and stringent
emission norms followed worldwide nowadays has put serious
question on usability of Diesel engine in future. Consequently,
much of the research is now concentrated toward nding an
alternative fuel source with better performanceeemission
characteristics.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: v1.abhishek@gmail.com,
(A. Paul).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.03.026
0360-5442/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

www.abhishek16@gmail.com

Natural gas is a promising fuel for the engine, whose properties

are distinctly different from the properties of any liquid fuel. CNG
(compressed natural gas) has ignition energy of 0.21 mJ (at 8.5% by
volume in air) [2,3] that allows ignition of very lean mixtures. CNG
is readily suitable for spark ignition engines because of its high
Octane number [4e6]. However, due to its low cetane number and
high self-ignition temperature of about 540
C [3], it is not possible
to achieve ignition of CNG by compression alone in existing CI
(compression ignition) engines. Hence, some source of ignition has
to be created inside the combustion chamber to ensure ignition.
This issue was encountered when attempts were made to burn high
octane fuels like CNG in CI engine under Dual-Fuel mode. In dualfuel mode, the primary high octane fuel is ignited by the combustion of a small amount of high cetane pilot fuel. Over the years, a
number of researchers have investigated the combustion of CNG in
a CI engine with Diesel as the pilot fuel. Hallquist et al. [7] found
that buses running on CNG emitted more ne particulates but less
quantity of particulates compared to the Diesel-fueled buses. Karabektas et al. [8], Serrano and Bertrand [9] found that dual fuel
yields higher CO and HC (hydrocarbon) emissions at all loads along

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A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

Nomenclature
CNG
BSEC
BSFC

hbth
TDC
ATDC
DI
ms
DAQ
TSU
EGR

compressed natural gas

brake specic energy consumption
brake specic fuel consumption
brake thermal efciency
top dead center
after top dead center
direct injection
micro second
data acquisition
total sampling uncertainty
exhaust gas recirculation

with lower NO emissions except for high loads. Liu et al. [10] found
that DieseleCNG dual fuel mode reduces NOx and PM (particulate
matter) emissions, although PM emission increased with increasing
pilot fuel quantity. Cheenkachorn et al. [11] concluded that a
maximum of 77.90% natural gas at 1300 rpm could be used in dual
fuel engine operation. Yoshimoto et al. [12] studied the effect of
cetane number of the pilot fuel in dual fuel mode and found that
fuels with cetane number higher than 45, there is a strong negative
impact on IMEP and brake thermal efciency. Works of Tomita et al.
[13] and Selim [14] separately came to the same conclusion that the
use of moderate EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) was very effective
to reduce NOx emission and increase the thermal efciency under
Dieselenatural gas dual fuel mode. Gong et al. [15] found that about
25e35% percent increase in power density could be achieved
without adversely affecting the NOx emissions in an HCCI (homogeneous charge compression ignition) engine using DieseleCNG
dual fuel operation. In two separate works, Ahmad et al. [16] and
Ishiyama et al. [17] found that low substitution ratios of CNG
improved the performance of the engine. Cordiner et al. [18] found
that for high degrees of CNG substitution, signicant improvement
in PM emission could be achieved. All these previous researchers
agreed on the same point that the dual fuel mode is reasonably
successful in reducing NOx and soot emission because of higher
Diesel fuel supplement ratio [19,20]. Further, CNG readily forms
homogeneous mixture with air, which can be burned easily over a
wide ammability range (5e16%) [21,22]. This improves the premixed combustion phase and aids in reducing NOx and soot
emissions compared to Diesel. Again, CNG generally burns quicker
due to signicantly high laminar ame speed of CNGeair mixture
(about 0.374 m/s for stoichiometric levels at 293 K and 1 atm) [23],
which minimizes the combustion duration. This also results in
incomplete combustion and increases hydrocarbon and CO emissions [24,25].
Since the properties of the igniter pilot fuel greatly inuence the
combustion characteristics of a CI engine under dual-fuel mode, a
signicant amount of work can be done by using different types of
pilot fuels along with the gaseous fuels. Although Diesel is used as
the primary pilot fuel in dual-fuel study, many other alternative and
sustainable fuel sources have been investigated. One such alternative fuel source is biodiesel. Biodiesel is alkyl ester of fatty acid,
produced by trans-esterication of renewable resources such as
vegetable oil, animal fat, waste cooking oil etc. Biodiesels are quite
identical to Diesel in terms of their properties and their effect on
performance and emission characteristics of the engine. Over the
years, different biodiesels have been used as pilot fuels. Namasivayam et al. [26] used Rapeseed methyl ester as the pilot fuel for a
natural gas fueled CI engine. This study observed signicant increase in thermal efciency and NOx emission. Side by side, a

PPME
Pongamia pinnata methyl ester
LNG
liqueed natural gas
LHV
lower heating value
NOx
oxides of nitrogen
NO
nitrous oxide
CO
carbon monoxide
CO2
carbon dioxide
HC
hydrocarbon
THC
total hydrocarbon
UBHC
unburned hydrocarbon
20%DCNG-0 20% load condition, diesel without CNG
x%DCNG-y x% load condition, diesel with CNG strategy y, where,
x 20, 40, 60, 80, 100% of load; y 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

distinct decrease in CO and HC emission was also witnessed. Selim

et al. [27] observed improved performance, reduced combustion
noise, extended knocking limits and reduced cyclic variability of
combustion using Jojoba methyl ester as pilot fuel for LNG (liqueed natural gas) dual fuel operation. Geo et al. [28] used rubber
seed methyl ester with Hydrogen under dual fuel strategy and
observed signicant improvement in brake thermal efciency and
smoke emission. Banapurmath and Tewari [29] used Honge methyl
ester as pilot fuel with produced gas dual fuel operation and they
also observed decrease in brake thermal efciency and NOx emission with increase in HC and CO emission. Korakianitis et al. [30]
experimented with hydrogen and natural gas dual fuel operation
using rapeseed methyl ester as the pilot fuel. They found that NOx
increases with hydrogen use, whereas HC emission increases with
natural gas use. Namasivayam et al. [31] in a separate study with
Rapeseed methyl esterenatural gas dual fuel operation observed a
tendency of lower emissions of smoke and oxides of nitrogen, but
higher emission of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons.
Yoon and Lee [1] studied the combustion and exhaust emission
characteristics of biogasebiodiesel dual-fuel combustion. They
found lower NOx emission with superior performance in reduction
of soot emission with the mentioned fuel combinations. Ryu [32]
observed signicant reduction in NOx emission with biodiesele
CNG dual fuel operation. One common feature of biodiesel, which
has been observed from these studies, that the caloric values of
these biodiesels are generally lower than Diesel, which increases
the fuel consumption of the engine [33,34]. However due to its
oxygen content, biodiesels allows widespread oxidation of fuel,
resulting in more complete combustion. This also reduces the formation of CO, HC, and soot particles [35e38]. Pongamia pinnata
methyl ester (PPME) is one such biodiesel, which is produced from
the oil of P. pinnata seed by transesterication process. It is a nonconventional and bio based alternative to Diesel. It has higher Cetane number than the biodiesels mentioned earlier [39], which
makes it more suitable as a pilot fuel for CNG dual fuel operation.
PPME contains 11% dissolved oxygen [39] in its chemical composition, which enables better oxidation of the fuel and compensates
for its relatively lower caloric value. This inbuilt oxygen is benecial in dual-fuel combustion as it can partially compensate for the
loss in intake air due to gaseous fuel injection. Due to its high cetane number, PPME signicantly reduces the ignition delay [40]. It
is also instrumental in reducing soot and hydrocarbon emissions
[39].
The present study aims to add in this eld by introducing a high
cetane pilot fuel (PPME) for CNG dual fuel operation. The study of
literature shows that most of the work in DieseleCNG dual fuel
operation is done with low concentration of CNG and there is a lack
of study on the effect of high CNG injection into the engine. The

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

present experimental work thus provides a comparative study

between Diesel and PPME as pilot fuel for CNG dual fuel operation.

497

Table 2
Properties of CNG.
Properties

2. Pilot fuels and their properties

The main liquid fuels used in this experimental study are highspeed Diesel and P. pinnata methyl ester (PPME). The PPME is a
nontoxic, renewable and biodegradable source of fuel and it is a
mixture of mono-alkyl ester of different chain length and saturated
fatty acids [41,42]. The PPME (Commercially known as Biodiesel) is
produced by trans-esterication of Karanja (P. pinnata) seed oil and
the whole process is carried in the IC engine laboratory of NIT
Agartala. Trans-esterication is an equilibrium reaction, that requires three moles of alcohol equivalently and the reaction requires
excess alcohol for completion. The product of this reaction is an
ester and the by-product is glycerin. The raw oil is collected from
Karanja seeds and the fatty acid in the P. pinnata oil is esteried by
its reaction with Methyl Alcohol and Potassium Hydroxide. The
reaction is shown in Eq (1). The CNG used in this study is collected
from a local CNG outlet of TNGCL (Tripura Natural Gas Corporation
Ltd.). The properties of the Diesel and PPME are shown in Table 1.
Table 2 shows the properties of CNG.

(1)

3. Instrumentation and methodology

3.1. Experimental apparatus
3.1.1. Experimental setup
The experiments are conducted on a 5.2 HP 4 stoke CI engine as
detailed in Table 3 and conforming to Indian standard IS 111701985. The engine is coupled to an eddy current dynamometer
(Make:Saj test plant Pvt. Ltd, Model-AG10) for load measurement.
The engine is also synchronized to a crank angle sensor (MakeKubler-Germany, Model 8.3700.1321.0360) for measuring the engine rpm. The crank angle sensor is calibrated in terms of 1
interval. Two piezoelectric pressure transducers (Make KISTLER, Type
6056A31U20) are used to sense the in-cylinder pressure and the
injection pressure of the liquid pilot fuel. All the instruments
attached to the engine are interfaced to the computer through a
LabView (National Instrument) based centralized data acquisition
system (DAQ), synchronized to the engine rotation onto a GUI
based Post processing software Engine Soft (Developer: Apex Innovations Pvt. Ltd.). The DAQ is preprogrammed to acquire in cylinder and fuel pressure data at 1
crank angle. The data stream is
smoothen over 100 consecutive cycles to compensate any cyclic
variation for a particular case of engine operation. The specic fuel

Table 1
Properties of diesel and PPME.
Property

Diesel

PPME (biodiesel)

Density (kg/m3)
Kinematic viscosity (cSt)
Caloric value (kJ/kg)
Flash point (
C)
Fire point (
C)
Cetane index

820
2.51
42,650
52
64
46

886
8.68
35,866
217
220
55.48

Density (kg/m3)
Flammability limits (volume % in air)
Flammability limits ()
Auto ignition temperature in air (
C)
Quenching distance (mm)
Stoichiometric fuel/air mass ratio
Stoichiometric volume fraction %
Caloric value (kJ/kg)

0.72
4.3e15
0.4e1.6
723
2.1
0.069
9.48
45,765

consumption of the liquid fuels is measured by utilizing a fuel

burette of 12.4 mm diameter and the fuel consumption is measured
for a time interval of 60 s. The airow into the engine is measured
from sensed manometric depression in the air box integrated to the
airow circuit. Special care is taken to keep the speed of the engine
constant (10 rpm) during data acquisition for each case of engine
operation at different load and different CNG induction strategies.
The whole experimentation is done at an ambient temperature of
28e29
C and at a relative humidity of 70%. The complete engine
circuit is shown in Fig. 1.

3.1.2. CNG injection circuit development

Considering the risks involved in working with gaseous fuels,
sufcient care is taken to incorporate safety measures in CNG induction circuit. This is done by incorporating a number of safety
devices, gas ow control and gas ow measurement devices into a
specially developed intake manifold. The CNG from the main cylinder is rst routed to a secondary cylinder, which not only works
as a buffer tank, but also provides security against any ash back.
The pressure of the CNG is reduced from 196 bar to 150 bar in the
secondary cylinder by means of a pressure reduction valve (MakeCONCOA, USA, model-405 2021). A pressure gauge (Make-OMEGA,
Model-PGC-25L-600) is connected to the CNG ow line after the
secondary cylinder for gas pressure measurement. A pressure
regulator/reducer (Make-CONCOA, USA, Model-3123322-01-B04)
is connected after the pressure gauge to manually reduce the gas
pressure to the required working pressure of 1.2 bar of a solenoid
gas injector (Make-DYMCO Corp, Model-i1000). A gas ow meter
(Make-CLESSE, Type-G1.6) is connected to the ow line after the
pressure regulator/reducer to measure the CNG ow into the intake
manifold of the engine. The specications of the solenoid injector
used are given in Table 4 [43]. The injector is mounted at a distance
of 1.5D (where D is the manifold outer diameter) from the engine
intake manifold to ensure homogeneous mixture of inducted CNG
to the incoming air. The controlling of the solenoid is done by a
control panel, which is synchronized to the rotation of the engine
via a crank angle encoder to enable a precise induction of CNG at
any desired crank angle and for any desired induction duration. The
complete CNG injection circuit has been shown in Fig. 2.

Table 3
Specications of the engine.
Engine type
Bore and stroke
Max. power
Cr range
Swept volume
Combustion system
Fuel injection pressure
Dynamometer
Crank angle sensor
Pressure transducer

Kirloskar, model tv-1, 4 stroke water cooled, vcr engine

87.5 mm and 110 mm
5.2 kW (@1500 rpm)
17.5
661 cc
Direct injection
205 bar
Eddy current type (Make: SAJ test plant pvt. Ltd)
Model 8.3700.1321.0360, Make KUBLER
Piezoelectric type (Make: KISTLER), Model-6056a31u20

498

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of complete experimental circuit.

3.1.3. Emission analysis instruments

An AVL Digas 444 5-gas analyzer and an AVL 437opacimeter are
used to analyze the exhaust of the engine. The 5-gas analyzer is
used to measure the emissions of CO, CO2, and O2 in terms of volume percentage. The emission of UBHC and NOx is measured in
terms of ppm (Vol.). The opacimeter is used to measure the percentage opacity of the exhaust smoke. The analyzers are interfaced
through their respective RS 232C serial communication bus to an
emission data acquisition platform that recorded the emission data
for 120 s at an interval of 20 s. CO, CO2, and UBHC emissions are
measured on the basis of Non-Dispersive-Infrared (NDIR) detection
principle, while NOx and O2 were measured by means of precalibrated electrochemical sensors.

3.2. CNG injection strategy development

The CNG injecting strategy followed in this experimental work is
formulated to achieve a controlled stream of CNG into the intake
manifold. In order to study the effect of different amount of CNG on
performance and emission of the engine, it is required to increase
the induction of CNG into the cylinder gradually. In absence of a gas
ow controller, this is done by injecting CNG for some calculated
injection durations. These injection durations are formulated on
the basis of degree of crank angle rotation of the engine. The valve

Table 4
Specications of test engine.

timing diagram as shown in Fig. 3 shows that the intake valve

opens 4.5
before TDC (top dead center) and closes 35.5
after BDC
(bottom dead center), which produces a maximum injection
duration of 220
(4.5
180
35.5
). Again, the exhaust valve
closed at 4.5
after TDC. Hence a valve overlap of 9
(4.5
4.5
) is
produced, which further reduced the effective induction period to
211
(220
e9
). This available induction period of 211
is divided
into 5 parts. Hence, CNG is injected for a crank rotation of 42
for
the 1st strategy, 84
for the 2nd strategy, 126
for 3rd strategy, 168

for 4th strategy and 210
for 5th strategy. As per the programming
of the CNG injector control system, the variable input parameters
are degree of start of injection (in
of crank angle) and injection
duration in terms of ms. Hence, the CNG injection durations are
converted from degree of crank angle to ms by using Eq (2). The
whole calculation is shown in Supplementary material 1. As per the
calculations, the CNG injection durations are shown in Table 5.

Injection Duration mS

60  q  106
N  360

(2)

where

q Degree of crank rotation for a Specific injection strategy:

N rpm for the same strategy:

3.3. Experimental methodology

Properties

Specications

Make
Model
Operating temperature range
Approval pressure
Operating pressure
Max pressure
Opening time
Closing time
Operating ow rate (L/min, 1.2 bar)

DYMCO Corp
GISM-i100
40e120
C
1.2 bar  0.05 bar
0.2e4.2 bar
4.5 bar
3.0 ms
1.0 ms
44

The engine is rst tested with pure Diesel, which provides a

baseline data set for comparing different DieseleCNG and PPMEe
CNG combinations. The engine test starts at 20% load and subsequently is taken to full load condition through load steps of 20%
increment. Once all the baseline data are collected, CNG is inducted
as per the 5 different strategies as discussed in Section 3.2 at each
load stepping. Once the engine is tested with Diesel as pilot fuel
along with all the CNG strategies for the whole load spectrum, the
complete liquid fueling system is cleaned properly to avoid any

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

499

Fig. 2. CNG induction circuit.

contamination of the PPME. In the second stage of experimentation, the whole process is repeated using PPME as the pilot fuel
along with 5 CNG strategies for all load conditions. Data collection
is initiated only when CNG ow to the intake manifold is found
uniform and engine speed is not varying more than 10 rpm. Special
care is taken to keep a constant water ow rate into the engine and
calorimeter. To avoid any cyclic variation that may occur during
data acquisition, all the data from the engine is averaged for 80
cycles. Again, each set of data is taken 6 times and averaged to
increase the authenticity of readings. The emission analyzers are
introduced on to the exhaust pipe after the engine has gained a
steady state condition.

The percentage of uncertainty of the performance parameters is

shown in Table 6.

s
2 
2
2


vU
vU
vU
DU
DX1
DX2 /
DXn
vX1
vX2
vXn

The accuracy of emission parameters is calculated on the basis of

the average value of six consecutive observations over a sampling
span of 120 s. The level of accuracy of the measuring instruments,
i.e. AVL DiGAS 444 ve-gas analyzer and AVL 437 Smoke meter is

4. Uncertainty analysis
Measurement of a physical quantity cannot be entirely accurate.
Errors and uncertainties in the experiments may occur due to selection of instrument, working condition, calibration, environment,
observation and method of conducting the test [44,45]. The deviation of the true value from the measured value of the quantity can
be calculated by means of an uncertainty analysis. Hence, it is
necessary to study the degree of uncertainty of the measured data
in order to authenticate the repeatability of the experimentation.
The combined uncertainty analysis for the performance parameters
has been carried out on the basis of the root mean square method,
where the total uncertainty U of a quantity Q has been calculated by
using Eq. (3) [46], depending on the independent variables x1, x2, .,
xn (i.e., Q f[x1, x2, ., xn]) having individual errors Dx1, Dx2, ., Dxn.
Table 5
CNG injection strategies.
CNG injection
strategy

Injection duration
(
of crank angle)

Injection
duration (ms)

Strategy-1
Strategy-2
Strategy-3
Strategy-4
Strategy-5

42
84
126
168
210

4500
9000
13,500
18,500
23,000

(3)

Fig. 3. Valve timing diagram of the engine.

500

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

Table 6
Total percentage of uncertainty of computed performance parameters.
Computed performance parameter

Measured variables

Instrument involved in
measurement

% Uncertainty of
measuring
instrument [46]

BP (brake power)

Load, RPM

Load sensor
Load indicator
Speed measuring unit

0.2
0.1
1.0

BSFC (brake specic fuel consumption)

SFC (liquid fuel)

BP

Fuel measuring unit

Fuel ow transmitter
As for BP measurement

0.065
1.5
1.02

SFC (liquid fuel)

BP
CNG ow

As for SFC measurement

As for BP measurement
CNG mass ow meter

1.81
1.02
0.25

BSFCEquivalent (diesel equivalent

brake specic fuel consumption)

Calculation

Total % uncertainty
of computed
parameters

q
0:22 0:12 0:12

1.02

q
0:0652 1:52 1:022

1.81

q
1:812 1:022 0:252

2.09

given in Table 7 [46]. The total sampling uncertainty (TSU) of each

observation set is computed as per Eq. (3) for each of the pollutant.
In order to increase the trustworthiness of the error analysis, an
additional index of standard deviation has been computed for each
engine operating condition. The total sampling uncertainty (TSU)
and the standard deviation of the emission parameters are shown
in Table 8.

CNG (CNG strategy 1, 2 and 3) with pilot PPME, increases the hbth of
the engine at almost all load conditions. This is due to the oxygen
rich content of PPME that supplies oxygen upon thermal decomposition and helps in better combustion. However, this inbuilt oxygen of PPME is not sufcient to compensate the lack of intake air
during higher CNG injection strategies. As a result, the hbth reduces
with higher amount of CNG injections with pilot PPME.

5. Result and discussion

5.1.2. BSFC diesel equivalent

The BSFC diesel equivalent is a comparative parameter that
compares the quantity of a certain fuel sample with respect to
Diesel for producing the same amount of power. Therefore, it brings
different types of fuels to a common platform where they can be
properly compared according to their consumption rate. Fig. 6
shows the variation of BSFC Diesel equivalent of the engine for
different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combinations and Fig. 7
shows the percentage of increase or decrease in BSFC Diesel
equivalents with respect to plain Diesel operations. It is visible from
the gures that, CNG reduces the consumption of liquid fuel for
both Diesel and PPME operations. This is due to the fact that the
CNG has a comparatively higher caloric value than Diesel and
PPME. As a result, for producing same amount energy less amount
of pilot fuel is required when CNG is acting as the primary fuel.
Hence, CNG provides the main stream of inlet energy for Diesele
CNG and PPMEeCNG dual fuel operation. It can also be noticed that
the fuel consumption is signicantly reduced in case of PPMEeCNG
combinations. This is an indication that PPMEeCNG dual fuel
operation is more fruitful than DieseleCNG operation.

5.1. Performance study

In this study, brake thermal efciency, BSFC (brake specic fuel
consumption) Diesel equivalent and CNG energy share have been
analyzed for determining the inuence of DieseleCNG and PPMEe
CNG combinations on the performance of the engine.
5.1.1. Brake thermal efciency
Brake thermal efciency (hbth) denes the combustion quality of
the engine. Fig. 4 shows the variation of hbth for different Diesele
CNG and PPMEeCNG dual fuel combinations at the tested load
conditions and Fig. 5 shows the percentage change in hbth for
different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combinations in comparison
with plain Diesel operation. It can be seen from the gures that
CNGeDiesel dual fuel operation reduces the brake thermal efciency of the engine. PPMEeCNG operation with CNG injection for
more than 18,500 ms is also found to reduce the hbth of the engine.
This reduction in hbth is due to the deciency of oxygen caused by
indirect injection of CNG via intake manifold. Deciency of oxygen
causes incomplete combustion and subsequent decrease in converting the input fuel energy. Similar decrease in hbth is also
observed by Maji et al. [47]. It can also be seen that, low amount of

Table 7
Accuracy of emission measuring instruments.
Instrument

Measuring range

AVL DiGAS 444 ve gas analyzer

Carbon monoxide (CO)
0e10% vol
Carbon dioxide (CO2)

0e20% vol

Hydrocarbon (HC)

0e20,000 ppm vol

NOx

0e5000 ppm vol

Oxygen (O2)

0e22% vol

AVL 437 smoke meter

Smoke opacity

0e100%

Accuracy
<0.6% vol: 0.03% vol >0.6%
vol: 5%
<10% vol: 0.5% vol >10%
vol: 5% vol
<200 ppm vol: 10 ppm
vol >200 ppm vol: 5%
<500 ppm vol: 50 ppm
vol 500 ppm vol: 10%
<2% vol: 0.1% vol 2%
vol: 5% vol
1%

5.1.3. CNG energy share

In this present study, the CNG induction strategies are designed
in such a way that they provide a window to simultaneously increase the amount of CNG inducted into the engine. Again, since
CNG is the primary fuel hence, bulk of the energy is supposed to be
supplied by the CNG itself. Fig. 8 shows the amount of energy
provided by CNG for both Diesel and PPME pilot injections. It can be
seen from the gure that increasing CNG content systematically
shares the major portion of the input energy for both Diesel as well
as PPME pilot injections. However, it can also be seen that CNG

Table 8
Average % TSU and std. deviation in observation sampling of all measured emissions.
Sampled emission

Average TSU (%)

Average std. deviation

CO
HC
CO2
NOx
Opacity

0.3707
1.3384
0.5925
0.8193
0.3088

0.000182
0.389761
0.041385
0.487766
0.004533

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

Fig. 4. Variation in hbth with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

Fig. 5. Percentage change in hbth with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

Fig. 6. Variation in BSFC diesel equivalent with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

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Fig. 7. Percentage change in BSFC diesel equivalent with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

Fig. 8. Variation in CNG energy share with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

Fig. 9. Variation in CO emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

shares more energy with pilot PPME operation than pilot Diesel
operation. For any given CNG strategy, pilot injection of PPME
produces higher CNG energy share than Diesel. This is a clear
indication that dual fuel operation with CNG is more fruitful with
pilot PPME.
5.2. Emission study
In this study, emission of CO, NOx, Unburned hydrocarbon and
smoke opacity has been analyzed to assess the emission signature
of the tested fuel combinations.
5.2.1. CO emission
Carbon monoxide (CO) is formed in fuel rich mixture in the
ammability region, where the fueleair equivalence ratio is higher
than the rich ammability limit of the charge. As a result, this region does not contain sufcient amount of oxygen that leads to
incomplete combustion of the fuel. Hence, the quantity of CO
emission is an indicator of the quality of combustion taking place
inside the cylinder. Here, Fig. 9 shows the CO emission from the
engine for the tested fuel for the dened load conditions and Fig. 10
shows the percentage of increase or decrease in CO emission for the
tested fuel combination with respect to plain Diesel operation. The
CO emission for the DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG dual fuel operations is found to decrease with increasing load. This is because, the
effective pressure inside the cylinder gradually increases with
increasing load. This causes an increase in cylinder temperature.
The increased cylinder temperature aids in further oxidation of
carbon and carbon monoxides to produce carbon dioxide, thus
reducing CO formation in the process. Again, it can be seen that
PPMEeCNG operations produces lower CO emissions than their
DieseleCNG counterparts did. This can be attributed to the higher
oxygen content of the PPME that promotes better combustion [60].
It is also observed that CO emissions increase with increasing CNG
content irrespective of the pilot fuel. This is due to replacement of
intake air by CNG, which reduces the possibility of complete
oxidation of carbon molecules and produces Carbon monoxide.
Yusaf et al. [48] also observed similar CO emission for DieseleCNG
combinations.
5.2.2. NOx emission
The main cause for the increase of NOx emission is high combustion temperature and equivalent ratio [49,50]. The NOx emission from the engine for DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG

503

combinations is shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 12 shows the percentage of

increase or decrease of NOx emission for the tested fuel combinations with respect to Diesel. It can be seen from the graphs that, the
plain PPME operation produces highest NOx emission. The inherent
oxygen content of PPME enables a more complete combustion of
the charge and thus produces an increased in-cylinder temperature. This elevated in cylinder temperature increases thermal NOx
formation [59,60]. In addition, due to the higher cetane number of
PPME, the ignition delay becomes shorter, which consequently
causes a faster combustion of air/fuel mixture, generating a faster
heat release at the beginning of the combustion process. This also
causes rapid temperature rise, which helps in the formation of NOx
[51]. It can also be seen that CNG reduces NOx formation, especially
with Diesel as pilot fuel. This decrease in NOx emission is primarily
due to cooling effect caused by injection of cold CNG into the cylinder. This leads to decrease in peak temperature and hence
decrease in NOx emission [47]. Similar decrease in NOx emission is
also seen with cooling effect of ethanol [56]. Further, Diesel has a
lower cetane number than PPME and it causes longer ignition delay
for Diesel. This reduces the combustion rate, generating less in
cylinder temperature and subsequently lower NOx emission.
Moreover, injection of cold CNG into the air produces a cooling of
the intake air and subsequent cooling of the combustion chamber.
This also reduces in NOx emissions [52]. In case of PPMEeCNG dual
fuel operations, the oxygen released by PPME partially lls up the
deciency of oxygen in intake air and helps in better combustion of
charge. As a result, higher in-cylinder temperature is produced and
consequently, NOx emission increases. However, with higher CNG
injection strategies, the oxygen released from PPME cannot
compensate the lack of intake air and causes incomplete combustion and lower in cylinder temperature. As a result, with increasing
CNG strategies the emission of NOx decreases with PPMEeCNG
combination.
5.2.3. Unburned hydrocarbon emission
Unburned hydrocarbon emission is the result of incomplete
combustion. The hydrocarbon emission from the tested fuel combinations is shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 14 shows the percentage of increase or decrease of unburned hydrocarbon emissions for the
tested fuel combinations in comparison to base Diesel operation. It
can be seen from the gures that hydrocarbon emission increases
with increasing amount of CNG content inducted into the engine
for both Diesel and PPME pilot operations. This trend is very
prominently visible with pilot Diesel operations. The increase in

Fig. 10. Percentage change in CO emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

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Fig. 11. Variation in NOx emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

Fig. 12. Percentage change in NOx emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

Fig. 13. Variation in UBHC emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

hydrocarbon emission with increasing CNG content is an indication

that the injection strategies dened in Section 3.2 might be
injecting excess amount of CNG into the engine. With higher injection durations, major portion of this CNG is exhausted without

signicantly burning inside the combustion chamber [57]. However, plain PPME and PPMEeCNG operation with low CNG concentration showed appreciable decrease in unburned hydrocarbon
emission. PPME has higher cetane number than Diesel fuel, which

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505

Fig. 14. Percentage change in UBHC emission with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

facilitates an easier ignition and more complete combustion. This

causes less unburned hydrocarbon emission [51]. Again, it can be
seen that unburned hydrocarbon emission reduces with increasing
load for all fuel combinations. With increasing the load, the mean
effective pressure rises, producing a higher exhaust temperature
which causes the reduction of unburned hydrocarbon [47].
5.2.4. Smoke opacity
Opacity of the emitted smoke primarily depends on the amount
of soot particles present in it. Higher the amount of soot, higher will
be the opacity of the gas. Fig. 15 shows the opacity of the exhaust
gas for different fuel combination and Fig. 16 shows the percentage
of increase or decrease of smoke opacity for different fuel combinations when compared with Diesel operation. It can be seen from
the gures that, plain PPME operation produces the lowest smoke
opacity among all the fuel combinations tested here. Similar
decrease is also observed by Saravanan et al. [58]. It can also be seen
that, CNG reduces smoke opacity for both the pilot Diesel and pilot
PPME operations. Since the H/C ratio in CNG is higher, so it contains
smaller hydrocarbon structure as compared to Diesel. Hence, soot
formation is less with CNG, which leads to a reduction in smoke
opacity [47]. For PPMEeCNG combination, the reduction of smoke
opacity is even higher, especially with CNG strategy-1. The lowest
smoke opacity of all the fuel combinations is observed from CNG
strategy-2 with PPME pilot operation. This combination produces

an average reduction of 71.63%. The smoke generation takes place

in fuel-rich areas of the combustion chamber, especially in the fuelspray core (liquid phase) of the pulverized jet. Since CNG is port
injected, it gets sufcient time to produce a homogenous mixture
inside the cylinder that produces better combustion. Thus, it reduces the formation of fuel rich zones and reduces soot formation.
This causes lower smoke opacity. Again, the oxygen content of the
PPME ensures sufcient oxidant for pyrolysis of carbon particles.
This causes a decrease in formation of solid particles [53] resulting
in lower smoke opacity.
5.3. Tradeoff study
NOx and soot are considered to be most detrimental emission
from an automobile engine as the former is responsible for several
respiratory disorders with the round level smog formation [54,55]
and the later one is a key constitute to global warming. Again, due
to depleting fuel reserves, fuel consumption of the engine is also
desired to be kept low. Therefore, a tradeoff study, which combines
NOx, smoke opacity and fuel consumption, provides a platform for
simultaneously comparing the major performance and emission
parameters and provides a scope of optimal study. Figs. 17e21
show the tradeoff analysis of all the fuel combinations studied in
this work on the basis of NOx emission, smoke opacity and BSFC
Diesel equivalent at the tested load conditions.

Fig. 15. Variation in smoke opacity with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination.

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Fig. 16. Percentage change in smoke opacity with load for different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combination with respect to diesel.

Observing the tradeoff graph at 20% load condition in Fig. 17 for

different DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combinations, it can be seen
that, CNG signicantly reduces the equivalent BSFC for both
DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG combinations, as it draws the tradeoff
from the highest fuel consumption zone A to the lowest fuel consumption zone B. It can also be seen that DieseleCNG operation
reduces the NOx emission with increase in smoke opacity. CNG
strategy 4 with Diesel as pilot fuel (shown as 20%DCNG-4) shows
54.55% reduction in NOx emission, 28.38% reduction in smoke
opacity with 67.78% lower equivalent BSFC among all fuel combinations at 20% load condition. Again it is also evident from the
graph that PPME pushes the tradeoff to a high NOx emission zone
(zone C) with a visible reduction in equivalent BSFC and smoke
emission. PPMEeCNG operation not only reduces the NOx emission
but also the equivalent BSFC. However, PPMEeCNG with higher
CNG strategies shows a marginal increase in smoke opacity (zones
CeE) as compared to low CNG strategies with same pilot fuel (zones
C and D).
Fig. 18 shows the tradeoff at 40% load condition. It can be seen
from the graph that CNG with Diesel as pilot fuel, pulls the tradeoff
zone closer to the origin with signicant reduction in equivalent
BSFC and smoke opacity (From zone F to G). However, a marginal
increase in NOx emission with CNG strategy-5 (shown as 40%
DCNG-5) is also witnessed. PPME on the other hand, pushes the

tradeoff zone far away from the origin to a zone of very high NOx
emission and high equivalent BSFC with reduced smoke opacity
(Zone-H). At this point, there is an increase of 380.95% in NOx
emission and 10.20% in equivalent BSFC with 69.78% decrease in
smoke opacity. Again, it can be seen that PPMEeCNG dual fuel
operation reduces the NOx emission and equivalent BSFC and
brings down the tradeoff zone from H to I. However, the NOx
emission at these CNG strategies is still higher than Diesel and
DieseleCNG combinations. At 40% load condition, the PPMEeCNG
combination is found to be benecial in terms of lower equivalent
BSFC with almost similar smoke opacity signatures with respect to
the plain Diesel operation.
The tradeoff between NOx emission, Smoke opacity and equivalent BSFC at 60% load for the tested fuel combinations is shown in
Fig. 19. As it can be seen from the graph that CNGeDiesel dual-fuel
strategies reduces the equivalent BSFC and pulls the tradeoff zone
toward origin. The DieseleCNG strategies also produces small increase in NOx emission with marginal decrease in smoke opacity.
The lowest NOx emission (with 35.59% decrease) and smoke
opacity (with 10.34% decrease) for DieseleCNG operation is seen
with CNG strategy-1 (shown as 60% DCNG-1). PPME however, as
seen in previous load conditions, pushes the tradeoff zone to a very
high NOx emission and high equivalent BSFC region (zone K). It is
also observed that PPMEeCNG dual fuel strategies again

Fig. 17. Tradeoff between NOx emissioneSmoke opacity and BSFC diesel equivalent at
20% load condition.

Fig. 18. Tradeoff between NOx emissioneSmoke opacity and BSFC diesel equivalent at
40% load condition.

A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

Fig. 19. Tradeoff between NOx emissioneSmoke opacity and BSFC diesel equivalent at
60% load condition.

bring down the tradeoff zone to a much lower NOx emission and
lower equivalent BSFC signatures (zone L). Low CNG strategies viz.
CNG strategy 1 and 2 are not very instrumental in reducing NOx and
equivalent BSFC. But the higher CNG strategies viz. CNG strategy-3,
4 and 5 signicantly reduces NOx emission and equivalent BSFC
with minor increase in smoke opacity (as shown by zone L).
It can be seen in Fig. 20 that, at 80% load condition, CNG with
pilot Diesel operation, signicantly reduces the NOx emission and
equivalent BSFC and brings down the tradeoff zone from M to N.
DieseleCNG operations with low amount of CNG (CNG strategy-1
and 2) are also found to reduce the smoke opacity and increase
equivalent BSFC. High CNG strategies (CNG strategy-3, 4 and 5)
shows marginally higher smoke opacity with signicant reduction
in equivalent BSFC. Among all DieseleCNG combinations, CNG
strategy-5 shows one of the better tradeoff potential with 88.71%
reduction in NOx emission and 58.13% reduction in equivalent BSFC.
However, an increase of 27.81% in smoke opacity is also observed
with the said fuel combination. It can also be seen that the plain
PPME operation pushes the tradeoff zone to very high NOx and
equivalent BSFC dominated area (zone O). At this point, an increase
of 369% in NOx emission can be detected when compared to Diesel.

507

Fig. 21. Tradeoff between NOx emissioneSmoke opacity and BSFC diesel equivalent at
full load condition.

PPMEeCNG dual fuel operations, especially high CNG strategies are

found to pull down the tradeoff zone to a much lower NOx and
lower equivalent BSFC signatures. High CNG concentration with
PPME pilot operation (CNG strategy-5) is found to reduce equivalent BSFC and NOx emission but with some increase in smoke
opacity.
Fig. 21 shows the tradeoff graph at full load condition. Observing
the graph it is again evident that DieseleCNG dual fuel strategies
are denitely benecial in reducing equivalent BSFC. It can be seen
that there is a proportionate increase in smoke opacity with
increasing CNG content. Similar to all previous load conditions,
PPME here also shows very high equivalent BSFC and NOx emission
(zone S). But PPMEeCNG operation, especially with higher CNG
strategies, again produces a proportionate reduction in equivalent
BSFC and NOx emission. However, the smoke opacity increases with
it (zone T). The emission signatures of PPME with low CNG injections are found to be very high as compared to plain Diesel
operation.

6. Conclusion
The study conducted here provides a systematic comparison
between DieseleCNG and PPMEeCNG dual fuel operations. For
conducting such experimental work, the test engine is marginally
modied by attaching a CNG injection system at the intake manifold. The CNG quantity is gradually increased to nd the optimum
quantity that would give better performance and emission characteristics. Further, two liquid fuels, Diesel and PPME are tested as
pilot fuel to nd the effect of pilot fuel variation on the performance
and emission of the engine using CNG as the primary fuel. The
study also draws a comparison between plain Diesel and plain
PPME operation. The vital ndings of this study are summarized as
follows,

Fig. 20. Tradeoff between NOx emissioneSmoke opacity and BSFC diesel equivalent at
80% load condition.

1. DieseleCNG strategies reduce the brake thermal efciency of

the engine. Increase in CNG causes further reduction in hbth of
the engine. Increasing CNG quantity also produces a simultaneous decrease in BSFC Diesel equivalent, as major portion of
the intake energy is provided by CNG itself. Along with that,
CNG also shows a commendable decrease in emissions of NOx
and smoke opacity. However, there is an increase in CO and
unburned hydrocarbon emission.

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A. Paul et al. / Energy 68 (2014) 495e509

2. PPME shows an increase in brake thermal efciency with almost

same fuel consumption as compared to plain Diesel operation.
CNG is found to respond far better in case of pilot PPME run and
produced higher energy share than Diesel at the same conditions. It also produces signicant reductions in smoke opacity,
CO emission and unburned hydrocarbon emission. However,
due to better quality of combustion, PPME produces very high
NOx emission.
3. PPMEeCNG operations produce the best results among all the
tested fuel combinations, both in terms of performance and
emission criterion. It is observed that low amount of CNG with
pilot PPME not only improves the brake thermal efciency of the
engine, but also produces commendable decrease in fuel consumption. In terms of emission reduction, increasing CNG content produces a consistent decrease in CO, NOx, and HC emission
with noticeably clearer smoke emission.
4. The tradeoff study conducted in the course of this experimental
work effectively shows the potential of CNG in reducing the fuel
consumption and NOx emission with acceptable values of smoke
opacity. It also conrms the fact that PPMEeCNG dual fuel
operation is a better alternative than DieseleCNG operation, as
it improves the performance of the engine with reduction in
signicant number of emission constituents.
This experimental work thus reveals the potential of CNG with
pilot PPME operation in meeting the paradoxical objective of optimum performanceeemission criteria without any major modication of modern engine setup. Further the study also shows that
CNG injected at 10
ATDC (after top dead center) for a duration of
about 4500 ms with PPME as pilot fuel can produce better performance and emission signatures than DieseleCNG dual fuel
operation.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.03.026.

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