New Approach Of Spark Ignition Engine Fueled with Ethanol

You Fubing Li Gesheng Gao Xiaohong School of Energy and Power Engineering Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430063 China E-mail:sunjun@whut.edu.cn ABSTRACT: Amid growing concerns about unstable In this paper, a new approach ethanol steam oil supplies and the impact of fossil fuels on global reforming, which uses common industry alcohol, warming, bio-fuels are receiving increased attention. is introduced for the existing spark ignition Ethanol bio-fuel could play an important role in engines with few structure changes. In addition, reducing fossil fuels consumption and greenhouse gas the waste heat from engine exhaust can be used emissions when applying to the transport facilities. In as energy source for ethanol steam evaporating this article a new approach ethanol steam reforming was introduced for the existing spark ignition engines and reforming. The combustion characteristics with few structure changes. Moreover, the waste heat of hydrous-ethanol reforming mixtures gas using from exhaust can be used as energy source for ethanol a const-volume bomb and high speed schlieren steam evaporating and reforming. The combustion photography technique and the performances of characteristics of hydrous-ethanol reforming mixtures the reformed ethanol engine, such as power, gas using a const-volume bomb and high speed economy and emissions, have been studied. schlieren photography technique and the performances
of the reformed ethanol engine, such as power, economy and emissions, have been studied. The experimental results indicate that hydrous-ethanol is reformed to hydrogen-rich mixture gas which is an excellent fuel for engines, In addition the hydrogen-rich mixture gas allows operation at much higher compression ratio due to its intrinsic octane number which could contribute to the power performance, and the NOx, CO, THC emissions are reduced remarkably because of lean combustion realized in the cylinder. Keywords: hydrous-ethanol, reform, spark ignition engine

Sun Jun

1. INTRODUCTION With increasing concerns about energy shortage and environmental protection, changing energy framework and reducing emissions from automobiles are necessary steps toward less dependence on fossil fuel, improving air quality and decreasing greenhouse gases. A variety of potential alternative fuels are currently being investigated: solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, geothermal and biomass. To the technology of present status, ethanol is fit for the transport facilities in comparison with all other alternative fuels because of its relatively greater power density. For ethanol as engine fuel, there is a variety of types from E100 to E5 which are mature in the market, specially in Brazil and USA. But all need anhydrous ethanol (99.5%) which takes a lot of non-renewable energy and then results in CO2 emissions during further distillation process from hydrous-ethanol. And there are many structure modifications when ethanol is used to the existing engines in high rate.

2.SCHEMATIC OF HYDROUS-ETHANOL REFORMING ENGINE The hydrous-ethanol reforming engine is based on a direct injection spark ignition (SI) engine. Figure 1 shows the schematic of the hydrous-ethanol reforming engine, which consists of a baseline SI engine with the compression ratio changing from 7.0 to 8.5, and a set of hydrous-ethanol supply system with an evaporator and a reactor. In addition, there is a gas chromatography for analyzing the compositions of the reformate from ethanol steam.

Figure 1 Schematic of Reforming Engine System

the

Hydrous-ethanol

1.SI engine 2.Ethanol tank 3.Flowmeter 4.Ball valve 5.Evaporator & Reactor 6.Exhaust outlet 7.Air/Fuel inlet 8.Venturi mixer 9.Pressure regulator 10.Sample valve 11.Gas chromatography 12.Computer

The engine exhaust emission measurements were accomplished with an exhaust analyzing system from Horiba, Horiba MEXA-1500D Exhaust Analyzer. This system was used to measure oxygen(O2), carbon dioxide(CO2), carbon monoxide(CO), oxides of nitrogen(NOx)

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978-1-4244-4813-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

and total hydrocarbons(THC), via a heat pipe 3.COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS OF HYDROUS-ETHANOL REFORMING MIXTURE GAS 3.1 Reaction pathways of ethanol steam reforming The reaction pathways and thermodynamics of ethanol steam reforming have been studied extensively [1-4]. The possible reaction pathways of ethanol steam reforming are summarized in Table II. It can be seen that hydrogen production varies significantly with different reaction pathways. In order to control the compositions in the reformate, it is crucial to ensure sufficient supply of steam and to minimize ethanol dehydration and decomposition. For fuel cell, it is important to minimize CO production and other poisonous compositions. But for engines, all compositions in the reformate are fuels. Otherwise, although the reaction of ethanol steam reforming is endothermic, the energy density of the reformate will be very low for engines if water is too much in hydrous-ethanol. In this paper, 75 percent (v/v) hydrous-ethanol, in which the mole ratio of water/ethanol is about 1.09, is selected.
TableReaction pathways of ethanol steam reforming

from the engine. combustion characteristics of the reformate gas, a const-volume bump and high speed schlieren technology are generally adopted. The research experimental apparatus is shown in Figure 2. The system has six sub-systems: the const-volume combustion bomb gas mixing box ignition system high speed camera system time-ordered control system and the measure system of combustion pressure in the const-volume bomb etc .

Figure 2 Schematic drawing of the experimental apparatus

Figure 3 shows the different time that the flame kernel of five mixture gas fuels : H2 H2+CO75 percent (v/v) hydrous-ethanol+ H2 +CO 75 percent (v/v) hydrous-ethanol steam and CO, propagate to the same diameter after sparked in the const-volume bomb. Figure 4 shows the five fuels relation of flame propagation distance and time. Figure 5 shows the pressure development in the const-volume bomb of the five fuels.

3.2 Compositions of the reformate gas In the above-mentioned reversible reactions, and analyzed by gas chromatography GC-TCD, the gas chromatography (GC) analysis indicates that The main compositions of the reformate gas is H2, CO, CH4 and CO2. Table II has shown the volume concentration of the compositions in the reformate gas reformed by the catalysts CB-7 and J106-2Q respectively.

3.3Const-volume bomb experimental apparatus and experimental results In order to study conveniently the

Figure 3 Different fuels schlieren photograph of flame propagation

From the figures the flame propagation

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speed of H2 is the fastest and it verifies that H2 has excellent combustion characteristics. The flame propagation speed of CO is the slowest. The flame propagation speed of 75 percent (v/v) hydrous-ethanol+ H2 +CO is obviously faster than that of 75 percent (v/v) hydrous-ethanol steam. It burns faster reaches the peak of combustion pressure quickly and the combustion time is shorter than the hydrous-ethanol.

Figure 4 Different fuels relation of flame propagation distance and time

Figure 5 pressure development in the const-volume bomb of different fuels

The reformate from hydrous-ethanol is hydrogen-rich gas. Hydrogen has a relatively high auto-ignition temperature due to its high fuel octane number. This has important implications when a hydrogen-air mixture is compressed. In fact, the auto-ignition temperature is an important factor in determining what compression ratio an engine can use, since the temperature rise during compression is related to the compression ratio. 4.PERORMANCE HYDROUS-ETHANOL ENGINE OF REFORMANIN

The engine is still started by gasoline. When the temperature of the exhaust reaches about 300C, the fuel is shifted from gasoline to hydrous-ethanol. From figure 6 to figure 9 show at the same conditions of 2000rpm the emissions NOx, CO, THC and energy consumption compared to the baseline. The plots illustrate that the emissions NOx, CO, THC of the hydrous-ethanol reforming engine are lower than those of the baseline engine, and the energy consumption is reduced about 6% except in low loads.

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CONCLUSION The reforming hydrous-ethanol boost engine approach could provide a cost effective way to meet near term goals of reducing gasoline consumption and emissions. The experimental results indicate that hydrous-ethanol is reformed to hydrogen-rich mixture gas which is an excellent fuel for engines, In addition the hydrogen-rich mixture gas allows operation at much higher compression ratio due to its intrinsic octane number which could contribute to the power performance, and the NOx, CO, THC emissions are reduced remarkably because of lean combustion realized in the cylinder. The other advantages of this approach are that the waste heat from engine exhaust can be used as energy source for hydrous-ethanol evaporating and reforming, and it involves only modest changes to the present gasoline engine systems and fueling infrastructure. The further researches for common industry alcohol as engine alternative fuel are significant works. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was funded by the Science and Technology tackling key problem item of Wuhan City (NO.200810321161) and the key item of Hubei Province natural science fund (NO.2009CDA029). The authors wish to express their appreciation to Professor Zhang Xintang, Professor Pan Zhixiang and Professor Wang Zhongjun etc, the staff of the Alternative Fuel Laboratory in Wuhan University of Technology for their support in the experimental measurements.

5.

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