Performance Analysis of an Otto Engine with Ethanol and Gasoline Fuels

Abstract

Energy conservation and its efficient use are nowadays a major issue. The evident reduction in oil reserves combined with the increase in its price, as well as the need for ‘cleaner’ fuels, have led in the past years to an increasing interest and research in the field of alternative fuels for spark ignition engines propulsion. Also, there are interesting to increase the technical focus on conventional cycles for making them more optimum in terms of performance. In this study, a comparative performance analysis and optimisation have been performed for irreversible Otto cycle with ethanol, methanol and gasoline fuels. The results show that the maximum power output, the working range of the cycle, the optimal power output corresponding to maximum thermal efficiency, the optimal thermal efficiency corresponding to maximum power output increase, the compression ratio at the maximum power output and the compression ratio at the maximum thermal efficiency when ethanol-engine operation is changed to gasoline-engine operation. The results obtained in this work can help us to understand how the power output and thermal efficiency are influenced by ethanol and gasoline fuels in an Otto engine.