Abstract
This paper reviews the serviceability of hydrous ethanol as a clean, cheap and green renewable substitute fuel for spark ignition engines and discusses the comparative chemical and physical properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels. The significant differences in the properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels are sufficient to create a significant change during the combustion phase of engine operation and consequently affect the performance of spark-ignition (SI) engines. The stability of ethanol-gasoline-water blends is also discussed. Furthermore, the effects of hydrous ethanol, and its blends with gasoline fuel on SI engine combustion characteristics, cycle-to-cycle variations, engine performance parameters, and emission characteristics have been highlighted. Higher water solubility in ethanol‑gasoline blends may be obviously useful and suitable; nevertheless, the continuous ability of water to remain soluble in the blend is significantly affected by temperature. Nearly all published engine experimental results showed a significant improvement in combustion characteristics and enhanced engine performance for the use of hydrous ethanol as fuel. Moreover, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions were also significantly decreased. It is also worth pointing out that unburned hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide emissions were also reduced for the use of hydrous ethanol. However, unregulated emissions such as acetaldehyde and formaldehyde were significantly increased.
Highlights
With the development of the global economy the consumption of crude oil products is currently increasing rapidly
The results showed that hydrous ethanol addition decreased the cycle variation (CCV) for all the measured combustion parameters
At a constant generator load and the addition of water ranging from 20% to 40% by volume in ethanol resulted in an increased BSFC by 75% because heating value per mass of hydrous ethanol is decreased with higher water content, while the overall efficiency decreased by 5% because of longer combustion duration
Summary
With the development of the global economy the consumption of crude oil products is currently increasing rapidly. A number of review articles have presented the effect of ethanol-gasoline blends in SI engines in terms of combustion, performance, and emission characteristics [28,29,30,31,32]. A study of literature indicated that there was no separate review on hydrous ethanol fuel and its use in SI engines, and which comprehensively reported hydrous ethanol gasoline blend stability, combustion, engine performance and emission. The study outlines the effects of hydrous ethanol and its blends with gasoline fuel in spark ignition engines, with a focus on combustion characteristics, performance and emissions
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