IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 __________________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 03 Issue: 04 | Apr-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 569 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF PETROL ENGINE USING FUEL CATALYST Sagar.A.Patil 1 , Priyanka.V.Kadam 2 , Mangesh.S.Yeolekar 3 , Sandip.B.Sonawane 4 1 Student (Final Year), Department of Mechanical Engineering, GES’s R.H.S. COE, Nashik, Maharashtra, India 2 Student (Final Year), Department of Mechanical Engineering, GES’s R.H.S. COE, Nashik, Maharashtra, India 3 Student (Final Year), Department of Mechanical Engineering, GES’s R.H.S. COE, Nashik, Maharashtra, India 4 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GES’s R.H.S. COE, Nashik, Maharashtra, India Abstract As everyone is aware, the price of fuel keeps on fluctuating from time to time, therefore, oil conservation and saving on fuel is everybody’s concern. We all know that extensive use of petroleum products has left our environment highly polluted, leading to various health hazards, ozone layer depletion and global warming. Therefore, it has become inevitable to have some solution a t our disposal so as to conserve fuel, reduce pollution and save our environment. One way to conserve fuel, reduce pollution and save our environment is the use of fuel catalyst. Fuel catalyst is a mixture of compounds which helps in efficient burning of fuel. We have carried out a test on SI engine with plain petrol and mixture of plain petrol and fuel catalyst. Work also reports evaluation of thermal performance of plain petrol with 0.38% and 0.79% by mass of fuel catalyst and compared with that of plain petrol. Also fuel properties relevant to the fuel were determined for the various concentrations of fuel catalyst, in a mixture of plain petrol and fuel catalyst and also for plain petrol. In this paper it is shown that higher concentration of fuel catalyst in plain petrol leads to effective combustion of supplied fuel which results in lower air fuel ratio for same speed. There is improvement in the thermal performance of engine due to blending of fuel catalyst with plain petrol. Also effect of fuel catalyst on the environment is noted by the measurement of exhaust emission of plain petrol and mixture of plain petrol & fuel catalyst. Keywords: Plain petrol, Fuel catalyst, Thermal performance, Brake thermal efficiency. -----------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION Rapidly increase in fuel prices and traffic pollution along with scarcity of petroleum based fuel has accelerated an interest for improvement in the existing engine systems. But most of the times due to complex manufacturing techniques as well as practical constrain changes is not that much feasible. One of the best ways for improvement is conjunction of fuel catalyst with plain petrol. Petrol engine transforms chemical energy of supplied fuel into thermal energy and uses this energy to produce mechanical work. This study evaluated performance of plain petrol with various concentrations of fuel catalyst and compared with the performance obtained by using plain petrol on the same engine. 1.1 Objective Objective of this study is to assess thermal performance of petrol engine using petrol as a fuel. And compare it with, that to be obtained from petrol with fuel catalyst. Thermal performance is to be evaluated at different load conditions and speed. Also, to evaluate the maximum thermal efficiency using fuel catalyst along with plain petrol and to check the suitability of fuel catalyst from environmental point of view. The optimum concentration of fuel catalyst in plain petrol is also to be found out. 1.2 Fuel Catalyst The main constituents of fuel catalyst are ferrocene, a cleaning agent and binding agent. Ferrocene is antiknocking agent which prevents the knocking of petrol even if the temperature of the system increases. Cleaning agent assures that the carbon deposition in the system decreases. And the binding agent holds all the constituents together. Fuel catalyst has Octane boosting property. Besides this fuel catalyst contains a fuel treatment component as a part of its composition, prevents corrosion of fuel inlet system and combustion chamber. Fuel catalyst is a powerful fuel system cleaner and also cleans the combustion chambers. The fuel system has a job of delivering proper fuel and air mixture to the engine, to give you the performance you need. Use of multifunctional catalyst will lead to better fuel conservation and emission control due to proper combustion of supplied fuel [1]. 2. PERFORMANCE OF PETROL ENGINE 2.1 Engine Parameters  Brake Power (B.P): It is the power available at output shaft of an engine.