Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures

James W. G. Turner, Andrew G. J. Lewis, Sam Akehurst, Chris J. Brace, Sebastian Verhelst, Jeroen Vancoillie, Louis Sileghem, Felix C. P. Leach and Peter P. Edwards
Additional contact information
James W. G. Turner: Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UK
Andrew G. J. Lewis: Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UK
Sam Akehurst: Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UK
Chris J. Brace: Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UK
Sebastian Verhelst: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Jeroen Vancoillie: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Louis Sileghem: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Felix C. P. Leach: Departments of Chemistry and Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK
Peter P. Edwards: Departments of Chemistry and Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-31

Abstract: This paper follows on from an earlier publication on high-blend-rate binary gasoline-alcohol mixtures and reports results for some equivalent ternary fuels from several investigation streams. In the present work, new findings are presented for high-load operation in a dedicated boosted multi-cylinder engine test facility, for operation in modified production engines, for knock performance in a single-cylinder test engine, and for exhaust particulate emissions at part load using both the prototype multi-cylinder engine and a separate single-cylinder engine. The wide variety of test engines employed have several differences, including their fuel delivery strategies. This range of engine specifications is considered beneficial with regard to the “drop-in fuel” conjecture, since the results presented here bear out the contention, already established in the literature, that when specified according to the known ternary blending rules, such fuels fundamentally perform identically to their binary equivalents in terms of engine performance, and outperform standard gasolines in terms of efficiency. However, in the present work, some differences in particulate emissions performance in direct-injection engines have been found at light load for the tested fuels, with a slight increase in particulate number observed with higher methanol contents than lower. A hypothesis is developed to explain this result but in general it was found that these fuels do not significantly affect PN emissions from such engines. As a result, this investigation supplies further evidence that renewable fuels can be introduced simply into the existing vehicle fleet, with the inherent backwards compatibility that this brings too.

Keywords: alcohols; gasoline-alcohol blends; ternary blends; renewable fuels; e-fuels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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