Seminar on

IMPROVEMENT OF THERMAL EFFICIENCY BY RECOVERY

OF HEAT FROM IC ENGINE EXHAUST

INTRODUCTION

PRINCIPLE OF HEAT
RECOVERY FROM IC
ENGINE

NECESSITY OF THERMAL
STORAGE SYSTEM

TYPES OF THERMAL
STORAGE SYSTEM
Thermal energy storage can be achieved in the form of sensible heat
of a solid or liquid medium, latent heat of a phase change substance
or by a chemical reaction. The choice of storage media depends on
the amount of energy to be stored in unit volume or weight of the
medium and the temperature range which is required for a given
application.

EXPERIMENTAL SET -UP

The experimental setup consists of a six cylinders Ashok Leyland

engine, heat recovery heat exchanger and thermal storage system. Fig
shows a schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

SCHEMATIC OF EXPERIMENTAL
SETUP

ENGINE SET-UP
The engine used for this work is a four stroke, water cooled, six
cylinder Diesel engines. The rating of the engine is 82 hp at 1500rpm.
The engine is mounted on the bed with suitable connections for fuel
and cooling water supply. The engine is coupled with a generator to
vary the load on the engine.

HEAT RECOVERY HEAT

EXCHANGER
It consists of a vertical cylindrical shape heater core made of mild
steel, with a circumference of 0.3m and an active length of 0.45m. A
copper tube of size 0.01m is wound over this heater core at gradual
intervals across its length. The copper tube is connected into the
thermal storage tank that is filled with water and phase change
material, and is made in the shape of a coil, inside the tank. The
above said setup is fitted in the exhaust pipe of the engine to extract
the waste heat from engine exhaust gas, using water as heat transfer
fluid. The water inside the copper tube flows with natural Circulation.
Fig shows the schematic diagram of the heat recovery heat exchanger.

THERMAL STORAGE TANK

The storage tank is a stainless steel vessel of diameter 0.25m and
height 0.3m. It contains water as the sensible heat material and
paraffin as the latent heat material. Hence it is called combined
sensible and latent heat storage system. The water also acts as the
heat transfer fluid to extract the heat from the flue gas. The tank is
filled with 40 spherical containers made of low density
polyethylene(LDPE) having diameter 0.05m and each spherical
container contains approximately 100 grams of paraffin. The thermal
storage tank is well insulated by using fibre coir to prevent heat
radiation to the surroundings.
In this paper, the experimental results are enumerated in the form
of various graphs of exhaust gas temperature variation. Variations of
temperature of the storage and other performance parameters under
various loads on the engine are studied. Based on these graph
interferences are given for various observations

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

EXHAUST GAS
TEMPERATURE VARIATION
It is already seen that as the load increases the exhaust temperature
also increases. Hence, when the load on the engine is increases, the
exhaust temperature increases. However, initially for some period of
time, the engine and auxiliaries will absorb part of the incremental
heat till the system attains steady state. Thereafter the temperature of
exhaust gas coming from the engine will be approximately at a
constant temperature.

WATER TEMPERATURE
VARIATION
The heat in the exhaust gas is extracted in the HRHE by
circulating water from the storage tank.
The time required to attain 65C at the outlet of the storage
tank is 240 minutes at no load condition and 180 minutes at
40 amps and 140 minutes at 60 amps load condition
respectively. This is due to the increased heat extraction rate
at higher loads.
It is also evident from the graphs that at all load conditions the
rate of increase in temperature is appreciable up to a
temperature of 60degreeC to 65degreeC. It is due to the fact
that when the temperature reaches 60degreeC, the paraffin in
the storage tank start changes its phase and for the phase
large amount of heat is taken from the water and this reduces
the rate of increase in temperature of water.


TEMPERATURE VARIATION IN THE
STORAGE TANK
Fig shows the temperature variation of the water in the storage tank
at the selected thermocouple locations. The temperature
measurements are taken at 6 different locations (i.e., at three different
heights and two radial locations at each height) in the storage tank. It
is seen from the graphs that at any time, there is small difference in
temperature between the top and bottom thermocouples. This is due
to stratification caused by the density difference of the hot and cold
water.

ENGINE FUEL CONSUMPTION

The fuel consumed by the engine is noted in order to calculate the
heat carried away by the exhaust gas. It is seen that the fuel
consumption is increases as the load on the engine increases. The fuel
consumed is 8 lit/hr at no load and 11lit/hr at 40 amps load and
13lit/hrat 60 amps load.

PERFORMANCE
CHARACTERISTICS STUDY

VARIATION OF HEAT CARRIED AWAY BY EXHAUST

GAS FOR DIFFERENT LOADS ON THE ENGINE

VARAITION OF TEMPERATURE IN C WITH TIME IN MINUTES FOR DIFFERENT

LOADS ON THE ENGINE

VARIATION OF CHARGING RATE FOR

DIFFERENT LOADS ON THE ENGINE

VARIATION OF CHARGING EFFICIENCY FOR DIFFERENT LOADS ON THE ENGINE

CONCLUSION
Based on the results obtained, the following conclusions are drawn.
Approximately 0.2% of the energy in the fuel or 6 to 7% of the energy

in the exhaust waste heat can be recovered using such a HRHE

system can be stored in the storage tank depending on the load on
the engine.
The percentage of heat recovered can be increased further by
increasing the surface area of the HRHE.
The charging efficiency of the storage tank and the percentage
energy saved can be improved further with proper insulation.
A combined storage system overcomes the main drawback of
sensible storage system by exhibiting isothermal behavior.
The higher heat capacity of the combined system reduces the size
and space requirements compared to conventional storage.

THANK YOU!