Experimental investigation on four-stroke catalytic coated spark ignition engine to promote cleaner environment

In the present scenario, automobile manufacturing industries face challenges in marketing vehicles with internal combustion (IC) engine to customers due to strict government regulation on emission norms and customers expectation on better engine performance. Hence, it is very important to identify some technique to reduce the emission level and also to improve the engine performance. The catalytic coating is one of the most suitable techniques for reduction of pollution level and increasing the engine performance. In this paper, the outcomes of investigations carried out on the emission control and engine performance of catalytic coated single cylinder four-stroke spark ignition (SI) engine is discussed in detail. The engine combustion chamber and piston crown were coated with copper (catalyst). The performance parameters of catalytic coated engine such as torque, brake power at different engine speed and load conditions were measured using two-wheeler chassis dynamometer. In this investigation, a comparative study was also done in parallel with conventional (un-coated) SI engine. The results showed that copper coated engine has significantly reduced levels of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission compared to conventional engine (un-coated).