Experimental evaluation of water-containing isopropanol-n-butanol-ethanol and gasoline blend as a fuel candidate in spark-ignition engine

Yuqiang Li, Yong Chen, Gang Wu and Jiangwei Liu

Applied Energy, 2018, vol. 219, issue C, 42-52

Abstract: Bio-n-butanol has attracted great attention as a potential alternative fuel in internal combustion engines (ICEs) due to its favorable physicochemical properties. However, the main issue impeding the use of bio-butanol in ICEs is its relatively high cost and energy consumption of dehydration and recovery processes in acetone-n-butanol-ethanol (ABE) or isopropanol-n-butanol-ethanol (IBE) fermentation technologies. Some researchers have proposed to use intermediate fermentation product, i.e. water-containing ABE or IBE, for clean combustion. Therefore, an experimental evaluation of spark-ignition (SI) engine fueled with water-containing IBE-gasoline blends was carried out in this study. Effects of IBE and water addition on combustion, performance, and emissions characteristics were first investigated at stoichiometric condition. Then, a “drop-in” fuel test was performed, i.e. IBE9W1 (9 vol.% IBE, 1 vol.% water and 90 vol.% gasoline) was compared with pure gasoline under various engine loads (3 and 5 bar BMEP) and equivalence ratios (Φ = 0.83–1.25). It was found that IBE9W1 showed a higher brake thermal efficiency, and a lower CO, NOx and BTX (benzene, toluene and xylene) emissions. The results indicate that water-containing IBE could be used as a fuel candidate in SI engine due to its eco-friendly production method and potential to improve energy efficiency and reduce emission pollutants.

Keywords: Water-containing IBE; Performance; Combustion; Emissions; SI engine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:219:y:2018:i:c:p:42-52

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.03.051

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