Study on combustion and emissions of a hydrous ethanol/gasoline dual fuel engine with combined injection

Hydrous ethanol has lower cost and energy consumption during the production process than anhydrous ethanol. Many researchers used hydrous ethanol instead of anhydrous ethanol to manufacture hydrous ethanol-gasoline. The water ratio in hydrous ethanol (omega) determines the energy consumption in the production process of ethanol. However, no one researched the effects of different omega on combustion and emissions of hydrous ethanol-gasoline. So, we prepared five kinds of ethanol with different omega (0, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% vol.) to research the effects of omega on combustion and emissions. This study adopted combined injection with hydrous ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (HEDI + GPI). The engine speed was 1500 rpm, and lambda was 1, the intake manifold absolute pressure was 48 kPa, the direct injection ratio was 20%, five spark timings varied from 5 degrees CA BTDC to 25 degrees CA BTDC. The results showed hydrous ethanol prolonged flame development and propagation duration, decreased Tmax and Pmax, delayed APmax. Water increased COVimep, but using hydrous ethanol at the reasonable spark timing would not significantly affect the stability. Meanwhile, when the spark timing was MBT, compared with GE (gasoline/anhydrous ethanol dual fuel) fuel, as omega in GEW (gasoline/hydrous ethanol dual fuel) fuels increased, torque and brake thermal efficiency improved by 1.69%, 1.13%, -0.01%, -0.77%; HC increased by 2.13%, 9.02%, 23.89%, 37.15%; CO decreased by 41.95%, 28.56%, 5.59%, 2.46%; NOx decreased by 10.10%, -0.75%, -0.17%, 4.18%; total PN emissions decreased by 24.07%, 69.57%, 36.34%, 32.45%. Meanwhile, more water caused the size of particles to drop, made particles smaller.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effects of different water ratios in hydrous ethanol on combustion and emissions of hydrous ethanol-gasoline. The results showed that hydrous ethanol prolongs flame development and propagation duration, decreases Tmax and Pmax, and improves torque and brake thermal efficiency. Increasing water content in gasoline/hydrous ethanol dual fuel also leads to higher HC emissions but lower CO and NOx emissions, as well as smaller particle size.