Subsurface injection of gaseous effluents of stationary internal combustion engines

Abstract

The exposure to poisonous gaseous effluents of stationary internal combustion engines has become one of the major causes of various adverse public health effects. This paper was aimed to study the injection of these gaseous effluents into subsurface soil and the use of soil as natural gas filter. The exhaust hose of 2KV gasoline power generator was made to inject its effluent into each of four subsurface depths; 20cm, 40cm, 60 cm and 80cm, for two types of natural soil; sandy and clay soils, in order to test their gas filtration  performance. Results of four weeks of operation have demonstrated that almost 100% of CO and NO₂ gases were kept underground at depths higher than 60cm for both types of soil. The clay soil has showed around 55% higher performance as compared to that of sandy soil for the dissipation of NO₂ and around 36% for CO at the same measurement locations. Injection of gaseous effluents has failed at 80 cm depth due to the inability of soil at that depth to disperse gases without affecting the machine`s backpressure.

Keywords: back pressure, gaseous effluents, gas filtration,  soil, subsurface injection