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Over past decades, the fossil fuel reserves in the world have been decreasing at an alarming rate and a lack of crude oil is expected in the early decades of this century. Also, the eco-neutral pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrigen (NOx) and unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC) are also increasing. This calls for innovative research in non-conventional fuels to replace fossil fuels. Hydrogen is one such fuel which has an exceptional combustion property and appears to be proving itself as the best transportation fuel of the future. On the other hand, compressed natural gas(CNG) has already been credited as a remarkable fuel for its better emission characteristics and has been implemented as a transportation fuel in metros. Therefore, the use of hydrogen blended with natural gas seems to be a viable alternative to pure fossil fuels because of the expected reduction of the total pollutants and increase of efficiency. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

In the present experimental investigation, 10 and 20 per cent of hydrogen–CNG mixture(HCNG) by mass of fuel is inducted into the combustion chamber in conjunction with air in HCNG–diesel dual fuel mode. The variation in injection opening pressure is assessed to optimize the performance and emission characteristics.

Experiments were conducted at three different injection opening pressures, i.e. 200, 220 and 240 bar, at full-load condition and the performance characteristics were calculated. The effect of injection operating pressure(IOP) on emissions were measured and compared with pure diesel mode.

Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was increased by 1.2 per cent at 220 bar. Minimum BSFC of 0.2302 kg/kWh, 0.2114 kg/kWh was noticed for 220 bar with a changing ratio of 20 per cent of HCNG. It was noticed that CO and UHC decreased with variation in IOP and HCNG content in the blend. However, there was an increase in NOx emissions.