Performance Evaluation of a Single Cylinder Spark Ignition Engine Fuelled by Mixing Ethanol and Gasoline

A.S Olawore,K.O Oladosu,E.O Fadele,W.I Oseni

doi:10.4314/jasem.v25i6.14

Abstract

The use of ethanol blend as an alternative source of fuel for developing clean and sustainable energy sources has grown considerably. In this study, the performance characteristics of an air-cooled, single-cylinder 4-stroke Spark Ignition (SI) engine (TD201) with a compression ratio of 8.5:1 was determined using gasoline and different blend ratios of ethanol and gasoline (E0, E2, E4, E6, E8, E10, and E12) at a varied engine speed of 2000rpm, 2200rpm, 2400rpm, 2600rpm and 2800rpm. The results revealed that as the ethanol content of the blend increases, the heating value decreases while octane value increases. The experimental results indicated that the brake torque, and power increase as the ethanol content in the blends increases. However, BSFC and exhaust temperature decreases as the ethanol content in the blends increases because of the oxygen enrichment. The emissions of unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide reduce while carbon dioxide and ethanol content increases when compared with the reference fuel (E0).

Highlights

Internal combustion (IC) engines are responsible for the emission of hazardous gases which have effects on the environment and human body such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, global warming, and other harmful effects
The results showed that the addition of ethanol to gasoline has considerable effects on the performance characteristics and emission of gases on the blended fuel
The study revealed that the torque output increased slightly at small throttle valve opening when using ethanol–gasoline-blended fuel and the emissions of Carbon monoxide (CO) and HC reduce with an increase in ethanol content of the blended fuel, which resulted from oxygen enrichment

Summary

Introduction

Internal combustion (IC) engines are responsible for the emission of hazardous gases which have effects on the environment and human body such as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, global warming, and other harmful effects. Many researchers have studied the effects of using gasoline blended with alcohol as an alternative fuel on exhaust emission and engine performance. The results showed that the addition of ethanol to gasoline has considerable effects on the performance characteristics and emission of gases on the blended fuel. Virendra and Rawat (2015) studied the effect of compression ratio on the emission of the pollutant of a four-stroke singlecylinder SI engine using different ethanol-gasoline blends (E0, E10, E20, E30, and E40). The objective of the research is to determine the effects of base fuel (E0) and ethanol blends (E2, E4, E6, E8, E10, and E12) on brake torque, power, BSFC and exhaust emissions of a 4-stroke, single-cylinder, and air-cooled gasoline engine with a compression ratio of 8.5:1 at WTO

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