i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 e5

Available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he

Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system

Sy-Ruen Huang a,*, Chiu-Yue Lin c, Chinn-Yuan Wu c, Chueh-Cheng Wu b, Chen-Yeon Chu d, Hong-Tai Chen b, Shi-Hao Wang c
a

Department of Electrical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan The Graduate Institute of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Ph.D. Program, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan c College of Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan d Green Energy Development Center, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan
b

article info
Article history: Received 24 March 2010 Received in revised form 18 August 2010 Accepted 19 August 2010 Available online xxx Keywords: Bio-hydrogen Internal combustion engine Solenoid valve Fuzzy control

abstract
This study proposes a fuzzy control bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) generating system. The ICE technology is composed of thermodynamics, mechanical engineering, hydrodynamics, and electrical engineering. Bio-hydrogen can provide clean and efcient power instead of conventional fuels applied in an ICE. The two critical cores of hydrogen ICE generator are ignition time control which can precisely ignite airefuel mixtures to make generator output stable power and airefuel ratio control which can adjust output power to satisfy load demand. Fuzzy logic can provide precise control and response fast within various airefuel ratios. The study establishes a fuzzy control system with an output generator and an ICE with solenoid valve that controls bio-hydrogen injection. The experimental system successfully output stable power and carried out parameters of bio-hydrogen ow rate, airefuel ratio, injection pressure, and ignition timing. Parameters and experimental data are analyzed in the study and can be references for future development of the bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system. Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Hydrogen has 3 times more energy than gasoline both in the same weight condition. For example, 1 kg of hydrogen has roughly the same energy as 3 kg (about 1 U.S. gal) of gasoline. The main disadvantage of hydrogen is low volume density of energy and it makes storage and transportation challenges. Although fuel cell has advantage of zero pollution, the cost of internal combustion engine is lower than fuel cell at present. Hydrogen ICE generators are composed of thermodynamics, mechanical engineering, hydrodynamics, and electrical engineering. The two critical cores of hydrogen ICE

generator are ignition time control which can precisely ignite airefuel mixtures to make generator output stable power and airefuel ratio control which can adjust output power to satisfy load demand. Bio-hydrogen is one of hydrogen resource. It is a clean fuel and does not need to concern limit reserve as petroleum. Moreover, it can be produced from recycle organization with lower energy than normal hydrogen [1]. We design a bio-hydrogen fuel ICE generating system by retting a four-stroke cycle ICE with a device control ignition timing and solenoid valve. The bio-hydrogen is puried and pressed in the hydrogen tank. We use the fuzzy logic controller which can effectively control the changeable

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 886 4 2451 7250x3990. E-mail address: srhuang@fcu.edu.tw (S.-R. Huang). 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084

Please cite this article in press as: Huang S-R, et al., Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 e5

Table 1 e Experimental engine Spec.

Type Cylinder Head Material Bore Stroke Rod Length Swept Volume Compression Ratio Max. Horsepower Max. Torque SG3300E(Four-stroke cycle engine) Aluminum 66 mm 57.29 mm 41.9 mm 196 cm3 9.2:1 4.8 kW@3600 r.p.m. 12.73 N m

Table 3 e Check Valve spec.

Manufacture Type Material Max. pressure Porker POWERFULL-316 Stainless 1034 bar

(2) Compression: The mixtures are placed under pressure. (3) Power: The discharge of high-voltage spark initiates combustion at a point typically just before maximal compression. The hot mixture is expanded, pressing on and moving the piston of the engine and performing useful work. (4) Exhaust: The exhaust gases are vented through the exhaust valve while the piston moves upward again following the power stroke [3]. This study rets a four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine generator, SG3300E (Table 1) with electronic valve and ignition control. The Opto-isolator receives the crankshaft position signal to decide the timing of bio-hydrogen injection. The solenoid valve opening time and regulating valve pressure are calculated by Fuzzy control. The Fig. 1 shows the structure of control process.

Fig. 1 e Structure of control process.

2.2.

Solenoid valve and fuel injection system

efciency of the fuel cell output power [2]. Section 2 introduces the ICE theory, Fuzzy control theory, and solenoid valve design. Section 3 introduces control circuit design and experiment. Section 4 is experiment result and Section 5 is conclusion.

Hydrogen is injected directly into the combustion chamber in this study. Hydrogen fuel requires minimum ignition energy in all fuels so safety devices are the major concern in the experiment. This study uses explosion-proof solenoid valves to avoid igniting hydrogen in fuel channel by spark from cylinder. Moreover, the two sides of pipeline connecting the nozzle and pressure regulation valve are tted with nonreturn valves and ame arresters. A remote emergency stop

2.

The bio-hydrogen ICE generating system

2.1. Four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine basic process

The fuel is burnt in combustion chamber and the air expands to push piston. Four-stroke cycle internal combustion engines have 4 basic steps: (1) Intake: Air and fuel mixtures are emplaced into the cylinder.

Table 2 e Solenoid Valve Spec.

Manufacture Type Coil Voltage Power Response Time Material PETER-PAUL EH22H7DCCM6 5 to 825 VAC, 50e60 Hz. 1.8 to 265 VDC A.C. 7.3 W D.C. 9.5 W Typical Response Time on Air: 4e16 (ms) Stainless steel

Fig. 2 e Nozzle spark plug.

Please cite this article in press as: Huang S-R, et al., Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 e5

Input Fuzzificaton

Output Fuzzy Inference Engine Defuzzicifa tion Control Object

Control Rule Base

Data Base

Fig. 3 e Structure of a fuzzy logic control system.

Fig. 6 e Sparking plug signal timing adjusting wave. Ch1: The wave of ignition signal; Ch2: Opto-isolator signal.

2.3. Equivalence ratio, ignition timing, and injection timing

Equivalence ratio, ignition timing, and injection timing are critical factors affect the engine performance such as thermal efciency, output power, speed, torque, and emission composition. For example, if injection timing is advanced or delayed further than the intake valve closure timing, cycle variation increases abruptly; thus it is preferable to set the optimum injection timing at the intake valve closure timing [5,6].

Fig. 4 e Bio-hydrogen ICE generator experimental setup.

control circuit also improves safety. This study designs a circuit to control solenoid valve and install a check valve to prevent hydrogen reserve ow. The solenoid valve spec. and check valve are presented in Table 2 and Table 3. Two major types of hydrogen-fueled engines have been developed over the years. These two types are using external fuel mixture preparation and using direct-cylinder fuel injection [4]. This study uses direct injection by the nozzle spark plug as the Fig. 2 shown.

2.4.

Fuzzy control theory and design

Fuzzy control theory is developed from mathematics of Fuzzy set theory invented by Dr. L.A. Zadeh in 1965 and has been applied in many elds of natural science and social science. The basic structure of Fuzzy control includes fuzzier, fuzzy inference engine, fuzzy rule base, and defuzzier and so on as

Fig. 5 e Solenoid valve control circuit. Please cite this article in press as: Huang S-R, et al., Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 e5

Table 4 e Ignition timing as compared with another study [10]. Equivalence ratio (F)
Ali Mohammadi, Masahiro Shioji, Yasuyuki Nakai, Wataru Ishikura, Eizo Tabo This study 0.8e0.5 0.7e0.3 0.7e0.3

Engine speed (rpm)

1500 1500 1500

Ignition timing (ObTDC)

2 to 38 0e38 0e40

Fuel injection timing (ObTDC)

80(Instoke) 100(Instoke) 300(Instake)

0.8e0.4

600e2200

18e24

300(Instake)

Table 5 e Sensor disc gap size and duty initial value. Gap
6 mm 8 mm 12 mm 18 mm

Duty
4% 9% 13% 18.9%

Electronic valve open time

1.33 ms 3 ms 4.3 ms 6.3 ms

Fig. 3 shown. The input stage maps sensor (crisp inputs) to the appropriate membership functions and truth values. The processing stage invokes each appropriate rule in rule base and generates a result for each, then combines the results of the rules. Finally, the output stage converts the combined result back into a specic control output value. It simulates the human beings thinking and making decision to solve problems [7]. A four-stroke gasoline engine was retted to a hydrogen-fueled engine in this study. Hydrogen ow was controlled by a solenoid valve. The air, via a surge tank, went into the intake manifold, where an air ow sensor and an electronic control throttle valve were installed to measure and control the amount of air owing into the cylinders [8,9]. The oscilloscope monitored the fuel injection time and engine speed signals and then the airefuel ratio can be calculated. A 12 V battery provides DC current through voltage regulator, L7805, to 555IC, Opto-isolator, and IC74LS14. Opto-isolator is installed on generator and sensor the rotate speed of generator. Fig. 4 shows bio-hydrogen ICE generator experimental setup. Fig. 5 shows the valve control circuit.

equipment improvements. Then, a test platform including air surge tank, resistance heater power measurement device, and external exhaust manifold to measure intake air ow, output power, emission of pollutants was made and regulated. Following is formal operation stage that rotation speed, hydrogen injection pressure, air ow, exhaust gas factors (CO, CO2, and CH4), and output power were measured through the oscilloscope, hydrogen pressure regulator, air ow meter, infrared gas analyzer, and the resistance heater power measurement device. Rotation speed and fuel injection time recorded by oscilloscope air ow measured by the air ow meter are calculated to airefuel ratio. The opto-isolator signals are serial square waves and the initial values are the timing of optoisolator sensing the signal while the piston pushed upward and spark plug ignited with an electromagnetic pulse as Fig. 6 shown. Measuring current and voltage of resistance heater power measurement device by power meters to calculate electric power, and then have the output power and thermal efciency of the engine with efciency of the generator.

4.

Experimental results

3.

Experiment

After retting the engine, the system trial running measured the speed and fuel injection time and adjusted pressure of biohydrogen which was stored in a tank to nd the best system starting values as the basis for the formal operation and

The open time of solenoid valve is hydrogen injection initial value also called duty and we compare equivalence ratio, engine speed, ignition timing, fuel injection timing with Ali Mohammadi as Table 4 [10]. Table 5 presented the relationship of bio-hydrogen pressure difference and injected bio-hydrogen quantity. The bio-hydrogen pressure difference means the difference of pressure between solenoid valve output biohydrogen and inside cylinder. The Fuzzy controller calculates the optimal value of bio-hydrogen pressure difference which is 60 atm (about 6.516 mg bio-hydrogen) when engine is stable operating at 2200 rpm. Table 6 shows the relationship of hydrogen pressure difference and injected hydrogen quantity. We set up the sensor disc gap 18 mm, and the duty 18.8%. Then, the solenoid valve operating frequency was 21.83 Hz. When the engine is operating, the sparking plug is continuously producing ignition signals which are delivered to the main

Table 6 e The relationship of bio-hydrogen pressure difference and injected bio-hydrogen quantity. Difference of pressure between bio-hydrogen and cylinder (atm)
20 30 40 50

Injected bio-hydrogen quantity (mg/ms)

2.098 3.203 4.307 5.411

Difference of pressure between bio-hydrogen and cylinder (atm)

60 70 80

Injected bio-hydrogen quantity (mg/ms)

6.516 7.620 8.724

Please cite this article in press as: Huang S-R, et al., Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 e5

critical cores techniques: ignition time control which can precisely ignite airefuel mixtures to make generator output stable power and airefuel ratio control. However, this system operates in constant engine speed and bio-hydrogen quantity is calculated by fuzzy control by Matlab software. An embedded fuzzy chip which can adjust engine speed and output power in real-time to satisfy load demand will be developed in the future. The output power of the engine fueled hydrogen is about 60% output of the same engine which fueled gasoline because of the fuel density. However, the bio-hydrogen only produces water, and is cleaner than gasoline. The exhaust gas factors, CO, CO2, and CH4 are produced from engine oil and the air. The spark plug oxidized was also found after long term operation because the biohydrogen is not 100% pure. The oxidized spark plug inuences ignition performance and waste bio-hydrogen fuel. It can be a reference for bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system future development.

Fig. 7 e Hydrogen ICE generator experiments: System under normal operating condition.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Science Council of Taiwan for supporting the research under the grant of NSC 99-2632-E035-001-MY3 and thanks for Feng Chia University nancial supporting (FCU-09G-27102).

references

Fig. 8 e Hydrogen ICE generator experiments: Biohydrogen pressure below 25 atm and system shut down automatically.

control circuit board to trigger solenoid control signals and make solenoid operation. The process makes a cycle. Fig. 7 shows the results. If the pressure of bio-hydrogen became lower, the system continuously adjusted the duty to control ignition timing to shut down the system as Fig. 8 shown.

5.

Conclusion

This study proposed a fuzzy control bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine (ICE) generating system which retting a gasoline four-stroke ICE generating and realizes the two

[1] Verhelst S, Sierens R. Aspects concerning the optimization of hydrogen fueled engine. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2001;26:981e5. [2] Kim Minjin, Sohn Young-Jun, Lee Won-Yong, Kim ChangSoo. Fuzzy control based engine sizing optimization for a fuel cell/battery hybrid mini-bus. Journal of Power Sources 2008; 178:706e10. 2007. [3] Daw CS, Kennel MB, Finney CEA, Connolly FT. Observing and modeling nonlinear dynamics in an internal combustion engine. Physical Review E March 1998;57(3). [4] Lee JT, Kim YY, Caton JA. The Development of a dual-injection hydrogen-fueled engine with high power and high efciency, Proceedings of the 2002 fall technical conference of the ASEM internal combustion engine division; 2002. p. 323e33. [5] Kim YY, Lee Jong T, Choi Gyeung H. An investigation on the causes of cycle variation in direct injection hydrogen fueled engines. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2005;30: 69e76. [6] Sadiq Al-Baghdadi Maher AR. Effect of compression ratio, equivalence ratio and engine speed on the performance and emission characteristics of a spark ignition engine using hydrogen as a fuel. Renewable Energy 2004;29:2245e60. [7] Zimmermann Hans-Ju rgen. Fuzzy set theory and its applications. 4th ed. Springer; October 15, 2001. [8] Guo LS, Lu HB, Li JD. A hydrogen injection system with solenoid valves for a four-cylinder hydrogen-fuelled engine. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 1999;24:377e82. [9] Yi HS, Min K, Kim ES. The optimised mixture formation for hydrogen fuelled engines. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2000;25:685e90. [10] Mohammadi Ali, Shioji Masahiro, Nakai Yasuyuki, Ishikura Wataru, Tabo Eizo. Performance and combustion characteristics of a direct injection SI hydrogen engine. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2007;32:296e304.

Please cite this article in press as: Huang S-R, et al., Fuzzy control of a bio-hydrogen internal combustion engine generating system, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.08.084