Enhancement of Performance and Emission Characteristics of SI Engine Using Multi Ground Spark Plug with Alcohol Fuel Blends

Limited fossil fuel reserves, steadily rising prices, incremental vehicle population and increased environmental concerns have sparked a need to evaluate alternate fuels for internal combustion engine vehicles. Alcohol fuels with high oxygen content and higher octane number become an attractive option for spark ignition (SI) engines. In practice, there are so many techniques to improve the engine performance and emission characteristics with alcohol and gasoline fuel blends. However, continuous operation of single ground electrode causes erosion of electrodes that loosens its ignitability which intern leads to higher emissions and reduced performance. Hence, there is a need to explore the influence of spark plug design for further improvement in engine performance and emission reduction. This paper provides an insight on the effect of potential alternative fuels like methanol blends and their influence on the performance and emission characteristics of a SI engine using a multi ground electrode spark plug. An experimental investigation on SI engine using various methanol blends like M10 (, M 10 fuel blend consisted of 10% methanol, 87% gasoline and 3% 2T oil), M20, M30 and neat gasoline has been carried out and compared with stock engine at various loads. The significant improvements in performance and emission characteristics are observed. SI engine with multi ground electrode spark plug using M10 fuel blend improved brake thermal efficiency up to 39% in comparison with stock engine. It is also observed that, reduction in carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions with M30 blends as 16% and 38% respectively.