Abstract
The paper reports on an experimental investigation of the relationship between the pulse width of a gasoline engine port fuel injector and the quantity of the fuel injected when butanol is used as a fuel. Two isomers of butanol, n-butanol and isobutanol, are considered as potential candidates for renewable, locally produced fuels capable of serving as a drop-in replacement fuel for gasoline, as an alternative to ethanol which poses material compatibility and other drawbacks. While the injected quantity of fuel is typically a linear function of the time the injector coil is energized, the flow through the port fuel injector is complex, non ideal, and not necessarily laminar, and considering that butanol has much higher viscosity than gasoline, an experimental investigation was conducted. A production injector, coupled to a production fueling system, and driven by a pulse width generator was operated at various pulse lengths and frequencies, covering the range of engine rpm and loads on a car engine. The results suggest that at least at room temperature, the fueling rate remains to be a linear function of the pulse width for both n-butanol and isobutanol, and the volumes of fuel injected are comparable for gasoline and both butanol isomers.
Highlights
Finite amount of fossil energy resources, energy security and concerns about climate changes are some of the main drivers of the quest to replace these energy source with renewable, locally produced alternatives
The paper reports on an experimental investigation of the relationship between the pulse width of a gasoline engine port fuel injector and the quantity of the fuel injected when butanol is used as a fuel
The results suggest that at least at room temperature, the fueling rate remains to be a linear function of the pulse width for both n-butanol and isobutanol, and the volumes of fuel injected are comparable for gasoline and both butanol isomers
Summary
Finite amount of fossil energy resources, energy security and concerns about climate changes are some of the main drivers of the quest to replace these energy source with renewable, locally produced alternatives. Production ECUs (engine control units) generally have the capability of some degree of short-term and long-term adjustment of the fuel injection pulse width, intended to serve as a compensation of variations in the composition and other properties of the fuel and in the condition and general working of the engine Such capacity has not, been intended to cover, for example, a rather substantial increase in the fuel delivery rates when switching from gasoline to ethanol. While no surprising non-linearities have been found with ethanol, and the volumes of the fuel injected during a given pulse width were reported not to differ more than 10% between ethanol and gasoline [2021], the considerably higher viscosity of both n-butanol and isobutanol as compared to either gasoline or ethanol (see Table 1) complicates the development of a simple method describing the flow through the injector as a function of fuel properties. As an added value, such determination could allow for determination of a correction factor for the ECU reported fuel consumption when using butanol as a fuel
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