Abstract

The effects of three kinds of oxygenated fuel blends—i.e., ethanol-gasoline, n-butanol-gasoline, and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF)-gasoline-on fuel consumption, emissions, and acceleration performance were investigated in a passenger car with a chassis dynamometer. The engine mounted in the vehicle was a four-cylinder, four-stroke, turbocharging gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine with a displacement of 1.395 L. The test fuels include ethanol-gasoline, n-butanol-gasoline, and DMF-gasoline with four blending ratios of 20%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, and pure gasoline was also tested for comparison. The original contribution of this article is to systemically study the steady-state, transient-state, cold-start, and acceleration performance of the tested fuels under a wide range of blending ratios, especially at high blending ratios. It provides new insight and knowledge of the emission alleviation technique in terms of tailoring the biofuels in GDI turbocharged engines. The results of our works showed that operation with ethanol–gasoline, n-butanol–gasoline, and DMF–gasoline at high blending ratios could be realized in the GDI vehicle without any modification to its engine and the control system at the steady state. At steady-state operation, as compared with pure gasoline, the results indicated that blending n-butanol could reduce CO2, CO, total hydrocarbon (THC), and NOX emissions, which were also decreased by employing a higher blending ratio of n-butanol. However, a high fraction of n-butanol increased the volumetric fuel consumption, and so did the DMF–gasoline and ethanol–gasoline blends. A large fraction of DMF reduced THC emissions, but increased CO2 and NOX emissions. Blending n-butanol can improve the equivalent fuel consumption. Moreover, the particle number (PN) emissions were significantly decreased when using the high blending ratios of the three kinds of oxygenated fuels. According to the results of the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) cycle, blending 20% of n-butanol with gasoline decreased CO2 emissions by 5.7% compared with pure gasoline and simultaneously reduced CO, THC, NOX emissions, while blending ethanol only reduced NOX emissions. PN and particulate matter (PM) emissions decreased significantly in all stages of the NEDC cycle with the oxygenated fuel blends; the highest reduction ratio in PN was 72.87% upon blending 20% ethanol at the NEDC cycle. The high proportion of n-butanol and DMF improved the acceleration performance of the vehicle.

Highlights

  • In recent years, in order to alleviate environmental pollution, reduce dependence on petroleum resources, and meet increasingly stringent emission regulations, biofuels have been investigated widely [1] and considered as attractive alternative fuels for gasoline

  • There is no requirement for a co-solvent, which means that the production and storage of ethanol–gasoline blended fuel is very convenient and low cost

  • The results showed that the BMEP was higher when the gasoline-ethanol was fueled at lower engine speeds

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Summary

Introduction

In order to alleviate environmental pollution, reduce dependence on petroleum resources, and meet increasingly stringent emission regulations, biofuels have been investigated widely [1] and considered as attractive alternative fuels for gasoline. As a representative biofuel, has the properties of a high octane number, large latent heat of vaporization, and less soot formation tendency in the engine combustion process [2]. Ethanol is the main alternative fuel for SI (spark ignition) engines [3]. Unlike a co-solvent being required when ethanol is blended with diesel [4], ethanol and gasoline are mutually soluble. There is no requirement for a co-solvent, which means that the production and storage of ethanol–gasoline blended fuel is very convenient and low cost. N-butanol has higher energy density, lower vapor pressure, better compatibility, and lower corrosion to the engine system than that of ethanol [7,8,9]

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