TY - JOUR
TI - Experimental investigation of an improved exhaust recovery system for liquid petroleum gas fueled spark ignition engine
AU - Gürbüz Habib
AU - Akçay Hüsameddin
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 6
SP - 2049
EP - 2064
PT - Article
AB - In this study, we have investigated the recovery of energy lost as waste heat  from exhaust gas and engine coolant, using an improved thermoelectric  generator (TEG) in a LPG fueled SI engine. For this purpose, we have designed  and manufactured a 5-layer heat exchanger from aluminum sheet. Electrical  energy generated by the TEG was then used to produce hydrogen in a PEM water  electrolyzer. The experiment was conducted at a stoichiometric mixture ratio,  1/2 throttle position and six different engine speeds at 1800-4000 rpm. The  results of this study show that the configuration of 5-layer counterflow  produce a higher TEG output power than 5-layer parallel flow and 3-layer  counterflow. The TEG produced a maximum power of 63.18 W when used in a  5-layer counter flow configuration. This resulted in an improved engine  performance, reduced exhaust emission as well as an increased engine speed  when LPG fueled SI engine is enriched with hydrogen produced by the PEM  electrolyser supported by TEG. Also, the need to use an extra evaporator for  the LPG fueled SI engine is eliminated as LPG heat exchangers are added to  the fuel line. It can be concluded that an improved exhaust recovery system  for automobiles can be developed by incorporating a PEM electrolyser, however  at the expense of increasing costs.