The efficiency improvement of motorcycle engine running with reformulated hydrogen rich gas driven by exhaust energy

Exhaust energy recovery has been applied to improve engine efficiency in this study. Methanol reforming was conducted with hot exhaust gas to produce hydrogen rich mixture. A 125c.c. motorcycle engine and a steam reformer were used as a test stand to investigate the effect of adding hydrogen mixture on the engine efficiency. It was found that addition of reformed gas may have two effects on engine efficiency. One is caused by the hydrogen characteristic, and the other is attributed to energy recovery. In the experimental setup of this study, the contribution of exhaust energy is about 8~10% of input energy flow. The exhaust energy utilization ratio is 11.3% and it may deliver 0.18 kW of energy to reformer. However, only 0.07 kW has been absorbed by methanol.