You are on page 1of 26

Alcohol as an alternative fuel

in S.I Engine

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

E85 FUEL BLENDED

ETHANOL

BLENDING

POWER MAKING FUEL CHARACTERISTICS

FLEXIBLE FUEL VEHICLE

ALCOHOL FUMIGATION

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

INTRODUCTION
In this century, it is believed that crude oil and petroleum products will
become very scarce and costly.

Day-after-day, fuel economy of engines is getting improved and will


continue to improve . Enormous increase in number of vehicles has
started dictating the demand for fuel.

With increased use and depletion of fossil fuels, alternative fuel


technology will become more common in the coming decades.

Because of the high cost of petroleum products, energy security ,


emission problems some developing countries are trying to use alternate
fuels for their vehicles

LIQUID FUELS:
Liquid fuels are preferred for IC engines because they are easy to store
and have reasonably good calorific value. The main alternative is the
alcohol .

ALCOHOL:
Alcohols are attractive alternate fuels because they can be obtained from
both natural and manufactured sources. Methanol and ethanol are two
kinds of alcohols that seem most promising.

E85
E85 is an alcohol fuel mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, by volume.
Ethanol derived from crops (bioethanol) is a biofuel.
It as a fuel is widely used in Sweden and is becoming increasingly common
in the United States, mainly in the Midwest where corn is a major crop and is
the primary source material for ethanol fuel production.
E85 is usually used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of
ethanol. Such flexible-fuel engines are designed to run on any mixture of
gasoline or ethanol with up to 85% ethanol by volume.

Ethanol
HOW IS IT MADE NOW?
HISTORICALLY MADE FROM CORN AND OTHER STARCH SOURCES OR
FROM NATURAL SUGARS BY FERMENTATION
COMMON SOURCES INCLUDE RICE, POTATO, CASSAVA PLUS CORN
AND OTHER GRAINS
MANUFACTURING PROCESS WAS VERY ENERGY-INTENSIVE, BUT IS NOW
LESS SO IN MOST MODERN PLANTS, DUE TO ADVANCES IN
DISTILLATION TECHNOLOGY

What about Using Ethanol for Fuel?

Closed carbon dioxide greenhouse gas cycle for biofuels.


Ethanol & biodiesel are sustainable forms of solar energy.

BLENDING
Automobile fuels are oxygenated in order to reduce air pollution.
In addition, removal of lead from gasoline renewed interest in ethanol as octane
booster.

While E10/E15 is intended for all automobiles, a blend called E85 is intended
for flex fuel vehicles. E85 can be as high as 30% gasoline in cold climates in
winter . The principle reason for blending some gasoline into ethanol for flex fuel
vehicles is to improve cold cranking in cold weather.

Ethanol is separated from the water in which it is produced via a process called
distillation. The distillation process does not remove all of the water. Having
some water mixed in with the fuel is actually improves performance of an internal
combustion engine, as the water provides extra mass to absorb the heat of
combustion and turn it into high pressure steam for mechanical energy.
However, water and gasoline dont mix well , so the water must be removed when
producing ethanol-gasoline blends.

Power Making Fuel


Characteristics
1.Octane Rating [MON]
2.Burning Rate
3.Latent Heat of Vaporization
[kJ/kg]
4.Energy Value [MJ/kg]

800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

1. Octane rating
Octane rating is a standard measure of the
performance of an engine .
Three common octane ratings for
motor fuels:

Research Octane Number (RON)

Motor Octane Number (MON)

(R+M/2) method

800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

RON is determined by running the fuel in a


test engine with a variable compression ratio under
controlled conditions, and comparing the results
with those for mixtures of iso-octane and nheptane.
MON testing uses a similar test engine to that
used in
RON testing, but with a preheated
fuel mixture, higher engine speed, and
variable ignition timing to further stress the
fuel's knock resistance.
(R+M/2) is the average of the RON and the
MON, called the Anti-Knock Index

800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

2. Burning Rate

The speed at which fuel burns and releases


its heat energy
There is less time for fuel to burn at high
RPMs, so rapid burning fuel is a must in
racing
Peak horsepower (kW) and engine
efficiency are realized if fuel is almost
completely burned by 20 degrees after Top
Dead Center (TDC)
800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

3. Latent Heat of Vaporization


a)Measures a fuels ability to cool the
intake charge and combustion chamber
b)Measured in kJ/ lt.
c)Higher rated fuels remove heat better

800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

E85 promotes better cooling:


Making the intake charge more dense,
thereby packing more energy (per
volume) into the engine
Helping to control detonation
Reducing temperatures in the engine
and oiling system components

800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

4. Energy Value

The total heat energy contained in a given


amount of fuel kJ/kg
Horsepower generation depends on Net
Energy Value - Equal to the energy value
multiplied by the amount of fuel that can be
burned
A fuels stoichiometric defines its ideal
air/fuel ratio
Lower stoichiometric fuels allow more fuel to
be burned which, in turn, increases the Net
Energy Value of the fuel
800-597-9747 www.iqlearningsystems.com

Ethanol and Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs)


What is a FFV?
FFVs are specially designed to run on all ethanol blends up to 85%
FFVs can use any mixture of gasoline or E85
FFVs have fuel sensors which
monitor ethanol/gasoline ratios

Flexible Fuel Vehicle


Flexible Fuel Vehicles, also known as FFVs, are designed to run
on gasoline, E85, or any combination of the two. The Flexible
nature of the vehicle gives the driver the flexibility to switch back
and forth between gasoline and E85.
Ethanol contains more oxygen than gasoline. The vehicles come
equipped with an oxygen sensor which determines the amount of
ethanol in the fuel at any time. It provides this information to the
onboard computer, which then adjusts the engine to maximize
efficiency and performance. The fuel may contain anywhere from
zero to 85% ethanol. FFVs are widely available and include
sedans, minivans, SUVs, and pickup trucks.

Utilization of Alcohol Fuels in


Compression Ignition engines
difficulties encountered:1.More alcohol fuel than diesel fuel is required by mass
and volume.
2.Large percentages of alcohol do not mix with diesel
fuel, hence use of diesel-alcohol blends is not feasible .
3.Alcohols have extremely low cetane numbers,
whereas the diesel engine is known to prefer
4.Diesel fuels serve as lubricants for diesel engine.
Alcohol fuels do not have the same lubricating qualities.
5. The poor auto-ignition capability of alcohols is
responsible for severe knock due to rapid burning of
vaporized alcohol.

Alcohol Fumigation
Fumigation is a method by which alcohol is
introduced into the engine by carbureting,
vaporizing or injecting the alcohol into the
intake air stream. This requires the
addition of a carburetor, vaporizer or
injector, along with a separate fuel tank,
lines and controls.

Fumigation has some following advantages:


It requires a minimum of modification to the engine.
The engine can switch from dual fuel to diesel fuel operation and viceversa by disconnection and connection of the alcohol source to the
injector.

If an engine is limited in power output due to smoke emissions,


fumigated ethanol could increase the power output because alcohol
tends to reduce smoke. This is because of good mixing of the injected
charge with alcohol.

Fumigation can substitute alcohol for diesel fuel. Up to 50% of the fuel
energy can be derived from alcohol by fumigation

ADVANTAGES:
It is a high octane fuel with anti-knock index numbers of
over 100.Engines using high octane fuel can run more
efficiently by using higher compression ratios. Alcohols
have higher flame speed.
It produces less overall emissions compared to
gasoline.
When alcohols are burned, it forms more moles of
exhaust gases, which gives higher pressure and more
power in the expansion stroke.
It has high latent heat of vaporization which results in a
cooler intake process. This raises the volumetric
efficiency of the engine and reduces the required work
input in the compression stroke.
Alcohols have low sulphur content in the fuel.

DISADVANTAGES:
Alcohols have low energy content or in other words the calorific
value of the fuel is less.
With equal thermal efficiency and similar engine output usage,
twice as much fuel would have to be purchased.
Even with the low energy content of the fuel, engine power for a
given displacement would be about the same. This is because of
the lower air-fuel ratio needed by alcohol.
Alcohol contains oxygen and thus requires less air for
stoichiometric combustion. More fuel can be burned with the
same amount of air.
Alcohol is much more corrosive than gasoline on copper,
brass, aluminum, rubber, and many plastics. This puts some
restrictions on the design and manufacturing of engines to be
used with this fuel. Methanol is very corrosive on metals.

It has poor cold weather starting characteristics due to low

DIFFICULTI
ES
Extensive research and development is difficult to justify
until the fuels are accepted as viable for large numbers of
engines.
Most alternate fuels are very costly at present since the
quantity used is very less.
There is lack of distribution points (service stations) where
fuel is available to the public.

CONCLUSION
I Would sum up the whole presentation into few lines saying that
reducing fossil fuels in the near future would be a great loss to
mankind if we are not able to find out any alternative for it and I
found alcohol to be effective as it can be produced easily and the
flexible fuel vehicle will be proved to be of great advantage.

THANK YOU

You might also like