Theoretical and experimental research of an automotive gasoline engine fuelled with butanol

Abstract

Abstract Among alcohols used for spark ignition engine fuelling, butanol can be a viable alternative fuel due to its very good combustion proprieties. Butanol has a high miscibility with the gasoline and stable blends can be assured. The higher oxygen content and the higher combustion speed of butanol comparative with gasoline are proprieties which may improve the combustion process and may lead to the reduction of greenhouse gases level such as CO2 and pollutants like CO, HC, and NOx. A theoretical and experimental study was conducted on a spark-ignition engine with 1.5L displacement fuelled with n-butanol-gasoline blends at different volume percentages and different excess air coefficients at the 55% engine load of and 2500 min-1 engine speed. Starting from a predefined model in AMESim was developed and calibrated a physical-mathematical model for the process’s simulation from the engine cylinder. The objective of the paper is to get a good representation of the real engine in numeric to have a better prediction of the engine performance at the different operating conditions. The theoretical and experimental investigations show important advantages of n-butanol in blend with gasoline: the increase of the thermal efficiency due to the stable engine operation at lean mixtures use.