Dr. Muzammil Arshad and two multidisciplinary students from the Higher Education Center at McAllen, Jonathan Rodriguez and Miriam Alanis, conducted a study to analyze the performance of hydrogen-enriched fuel on spark engine performance and efficiency. This solution could make significant contributions to helping automobiles become more environmentally friendly.
“Due to climate change, as well as a focus on reduced emissions and deprivation of fossil fuel reserves, there has been immense research to reduce emissions,” said Arshad. “This has led to investigating effects of dual fuels on the emissions as well as engine performance parameters because we don’t want to lose the combustion characteristics by injecting a secondary fuel.”
The goal is that by adding hydrogen, cars will be more fuel-efficient and produce less emissions. The researchers also analyzed whether significant changes would be required to current spark ignition engines to account for the addition of hydrogen.
“Our findings show a reduction in the in-cylinder peak pressure, insinuating that we do not need major modifications to the engine to use this dual fuel,” said Rodriguez.
Their research was accepted into the 12th U.S. Annual Combustion Meeting hosted in College Station, where they presented their findings. This study was also recently published in the Petroleum and Chemical Industry International journal.
“These accolades establish our research and give it credibility,” said Rodriguez. “I believe we are part of the first student research projects conducted on the McAllen campus. As an undergraduate, I didn’t believe it was an experience I would achieve until Dr. Arshad developed the project.”
FEATURED RESEARCHER
Dr. Muzammil Arshad
- Instructional Assistant Professor, College of Engineering