Research and Development of Alcohol Fuel Useage in Spark-Ignited Engines

摘要

This report is a concluding document of a one year investigation of methanol fuel utilization in spark ignited engines. The cold starting study of methanol occupies a dominant portion of this report. It contains three phases: (1) computer modeling wherein the effects of fuel concentration, droplet size, electric heating and use of reformed methanol are evaluated as functions of ambient temperature; (2) experimental cold chamber studies which are parametrically allied to the modeling studies and wherein a piezo-electric device is used to generate fuel droplets in the 10 micron range; (3) vehicle studies relating to starting vehicles on alcohol fuels using state-of-the-art fuel systems and fuel blending agents. The study during this time period has focused on three-way catalyst efficiency and vehicle performance with elevated engine compression ratio (12:1). It is found that by minor adjustments the catalyst efficiency can be as good on alcohol as gasoline, whereas without these adjustments, the vehicle exhaust NO/sub x/ is elevated when using methanol fuel even though the ''engine out'' NO/sub x/ is, as expected, lower than gasoline. (ERA citation 11:030069)