Experimental Study on Electrical Power Generation from 1 kW Engine Using Simulated Biogas Fuel

This research paper presented a biogas as a fuel for small 1 kW power engine. The simulated biogas fuel was tested on type of spark ignition engine of generator and it examined the engine performance at the constant engine speed under load transients. The generator was connected to load bank and it was functioned to generate a comparable result from the laboratory experiments by using gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas as fuel in the engine to be evaluated with simulated biogas. Based on study conducted, on more general proportion, 60% of methane (CH4) and 40% of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the simulated biogas was used. The results obtained from testing the engine have been found to be satisfactory. As the calculations on electric power generation, fuel flow rate, specific fuel consumption, (sfc) and engine efficiency have been made, the results showed that the performance of engine and exhaust emissions fuelled with gasoline would be a baseline for this project. It also showed that maximum specific fuel consumption for LPG and natural gas was decreased by 10% and 23.4% respectively when compared to gasoline and it is proven that the simulated biogas has consumed more fuel (1254.83 kg/kWh) with only reach up to 780 W. The power reduction of engine using simulated biogas was about 22% as compared to gasoline. In term of engine efficiency, gasoline, LPG, natural gas have generated 21%, 20.7%, 20.4% respectively while simulated biogas generated only 0.16% of engine efficiency.