Effect of collective parameters green hydrogen production using corn cob and assessment of performance, combustion and emission characteristics in agriculture diesel engine

The demand for conventional fuel increased worldwide, and research focused on finding suitable alternatives to fulfil their needs. Recently, hydrogen fuel has been derived using biomass gasification due to an efficient, viable path for economic competitiveness and reliability. The research aims to derive the hydrogen fuel from agricultural residues of corn cob at low feedstock cost via biomass gasification technique with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as a catalyst. It is executed with varied process parameters such as 0.2-0.35, 0.4-0.55, 0.6-0.8, and 0.9-1.2 mm biomass particle size, 3, 6, 9, and 12 g/min steam flow and the temperature span of 600 to 1100 oC respectively. The effect of gasification process parameters on hydrogen yield was measured, and output results showed that 0.2-0.35 g/min particle size and 3 g/min steam flow at 1100 oC is found to higher hydrogen yield of 48% and used an alternative fuel for internal combustion (IC) engines. Its performance is evaluated by 100, 80, 70, and 60% of hydrogen blends with diesel. The 60% hydrogen blend showed enhanced engine performance like cylinder pressure, heat release rate (HRR), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), and brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 29 bar,49 J/oC, 0.4 kg/kWh, and 35% respectively. Moreover, the emission studies reported that the lowest carbon monoxide values are 0.035Vol%, 75 ppm for unburned hydrocarbon (UHC), 61% reduced smoke emission, and 820 ppm for nitrogen oxide (NOx).