Study on the utilization of low-grade bioethanol on SI gasoline engine as a mixture of pure gasoline fuel or with the addition of oxygenated additives to improve performance and reduce emissions

Abstract

Utilization Currently, bioethanol has developed into additional fuel or substitute fuel for motorcars as a renewable energy source. Although Indonesia has great potential for developing bioethanol, its utilization continues to be very low. In certain areas in Indonesia, bioethanol is produced on a tiny low scale grade (hydrous) and is barely used as a drink; therefore research and development of the utilization of bioethanol in motorcars are needed, where the grade must be higher (anhydrous). Hydrous bioethanol has slightly different characteristics compared to anhydrous bioethanol. Octane is lower, heating value is lower, the heat energy of vaporization is higher, and the oxygen content is higher. However, the precise values for every characteristic rely on the mixture content and therefore the water content contained so a separate test of the hydrous bioethanol is required. This study could be a study of the utilization of hydrous bioethanol produced from low-grade bioethanol which is converted to high- grade bioethanol through a distillation process using motorcycle exhaust gas as a heat source which is applied to a compact-distillation system consisting of an evaporator, separator, and condenser to distil low-grade bioethanol (around 30%) becomes high-grade bioethanol (> 90%). Followed by testing the utilization of anhydrous bioethanol mixed with gasoline in SI gasoline engines, the composition of the mixture E0, E5, E10, and E15 and therefore the composition of the mixture with the addition of oxygenated additives (cyclohexanol) as secondary alcohols to further improve performance and reduce gas emissions throw it away.