Abstract
Fuel reforming technology for the fuel cell vehicles has been frequently applied to internal combustion engine for the reduction of engine out emissions. Since syngas which is reformed from fossil fuel has hydrogen as a major component, it has abilities to enhance the combustion characteristics with wide flammability and high speed flame propagation. In this paper, syngas was feed to a 2.0 liter SI engine with MPI to improve exhaust emissions under cold start and early state of idle condition. Syngas fraction is varied to 0%, 10%, 25%, with various ignition timings. Exhaust emission characteristics and the exhaust system temperature were measured to investigate the effects of syngas addition on cold start. Result showed that HC emission could be dramatically reduced due to the fact that syngas has $H_2$ and no HC as components. The amount of $NO_x$ emission was decreased with the increase of syngas fraction. Because the dilution effect of $N_2$ and the retard of ignition timing reduces the peak combustion temperature inside the cylinder. Exhaust gas temperature was lower than that of gasoline feeding condition. Retarded ignition timing, however, resulted in increased exhaust gas temperature approximated to gasoline condition. It is supposed that the usage of syngas in an SI engine is an effective solution to meet the future strict emission regulations.
