Comparison of utilization of rice husk charcoal and sawdust charcoal as air filters in enhanching the performance of a 4-stroke gasoline motorcycle

Human dependence on motor vehicles, especially motorcycles continues to increase every year. The use of motorcycles leads an increase in fuel consumption, also air pollution. To overcome the scarcity of fuel and environmental air pollution, there is a simple way that can be done without modifying the engine, namely filtering out useless air components, such as nitrogen or water vapor. Rice husks charcoal and sawdust charcoal have the ability to adsorb moisture contained in the combustion air. In this study, rice husks charcoal and sawdust charcoal that had been physically activated using an oven were used as combustion air adsorbents. The selected activation temperature variations are without heating, 175, 200, and 225 °C. This research begins with testing fuel consumption in running conditions (constant speed 50 kph with a distance of 5 km), stationary tests at engine rotation of 1500 and 3000 rpm and acceleration tests (0-80 km/hour). From the test results, it is evident that the use of rice husks charcoal and sawdust charcoal can increase the performance of gasoline motorcycle. The highest fuel consumption savings were 7.1% in the road test, 37.2% and 25.3% in the stationary tests of 1500 and 3000 rpm, and increased acceleration by 7.4%, all of which occurred at an activation temperature of 225 °C. Rice husk charcoal is able to increase engine performance higher than sawdust charcoal.