Effect of intake valve lift and binary alcohol (bioethanol+isobutanol) addition on energy, exergy, sustainability, greenhouse gas impact and cost analysis in a hydrogen/diesel dual fuel engines

Greenhouse gas emissions are a significant problem contributing to global warming and climate change and it is essential to increase the use of renewable and biomass-derived fuels in internal combustion engines to reduce greenhouse gas formation. Alcohol fuels and hydrogen have become prominent in recent years due to less harmful emission levels as a result of combustion. While there are very few studies in the literature on ternary mixture + hydrogen in terms of energy and exergy, there is a gap on the effect of the valve lift amount. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of binary alcohol addition and variable intake valve lift (IVL) in hydrogen-diesel dual fuel mode on energy, exergy, sustainability, and greenhouse gas emissions. The experiments are conducted at variable torque conditions, involving three different IVL values (4, 4.46, and 4.9 mm) and four different fuel combinations (diesel, diesel + H2, diesel + binary alcohol, and diesel + binary alcohol + H2). The binary alcohol addition consists of 10% bioethanol and 10% isobutanol volumetrically, while in the dual-fuel mode, hydrogen is injected into the cylinder at a constant flow rate. When the results are examined, the highest energy and exergy values are obtained with the IVL-Diesel + H2 operation, providing on average 11% and 8% higher exergy efficiency compared to IVL 4-Diesel and IVL 4.46-Diesel studies, respectively. Additionally, the exergy destruction in the IVL-Diesel + H2 study shows an average decrease of 16% and 12%, respectively, compared to the IVL 4-Diesel and IVL 4.46-Diesel studies. Additionally, significant reductions in emissions are achieved. In the IVL 4.9-EB20+H2 study, HC, CO, and CO2 emissions decrease by 28%, 40%, and 28%, respectively, compared to the IVL 4.0 study. When examining the GHG emission impact, it is analysed that operating a single-cylinder engine with EB20+H2 fuels under 4.9 mm IVL conditions emits, on average, 36% and 32% less GHG impact over a one-year period compared to IVL 4-Diesel and IVL 4.46-Diesel studies, respectively.