Emission characteristics of single cylinder 4 stroke SI engine using cobalt scrubber

Abstract

Purpose

Automobiles have always been a major cause of air pollution. The vehicular emission contains several harmful pollutants that affect the surroundings and living beings. Mild CO exposure leads to headaches or unconsciousness. CO is also responsible for the global warming as well. CO is mainly generated in the IC engine due to incomplete combustion of the fuel. The purpose of this paper is to implement a CO absorption mechanism inside the exhaust pipe of vehicle.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research work the single cylinder four stroke spark-ignition engine is intended to run on petroleum and petroleum blended fuels. A new post-combustion emission control device called cobalt scrubber is employed to reduce the emission of CO during idling which absorb and later release it under transient conditions.

Findings

The emission of CO when the engine runs at petroleum is reduced from 6.24 to 3.02 per cent. Methanol 40 per cent+petrol 60 per cent gives a better emission result of 0.98 per cent of CO emission. So, the authors can implement the cobalt scrubber in automobiles to avoid CO emission during idling.

Practical implications

The scrubber clearly overcomes the drawbacks of the existing control techniques. The cobalt scrubber is a cheap, non-radioactive. It can be employed in any kind of vehicle irrespective of its engine.

Originality/value

The use of the scrubber design presented in this article, effectively reduces the emission of CO.

Citation

Thirumal valavan, S., Malliga, P., Arulraj, P. and Udayakumar, G. (2016), "Emission characteristics of single cylinder 4 stroke SI engine using cobalt scrubber", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 79-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-06-2015-0116