https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8589931/file/8609217.pdf

Methanol as a fuel for internal combustion engines

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8575734/file/8575739.pdf

Exploring the potential of reformed-exhaust gas recirculation (R-EGR) for increased efficiency of methanol fueled SI engines

An optical study on spray and combustion characteristics of ternary hydrogenated catalytic biodiesel/methanol/n-octanol blends; part I: Spray morphology, ignition delay, and flame lift-off length

Power-to-X: A review and perspective

The automotive sector is concerned about menacing towards depleting fossil fuel and exhaust emissions generated by conventional engines. To meet the challenges of fossil fuel scarcity and strict emission regulations, alternative fuels have grown in importance and play a significant role in reducing the dependency on gasoline in spark ignition (SI) engines. Among alternative fuels, alcohol fuels have some major advantages including compatibility with conventional engines and the potential to limit greenhouse (GH) emissions. Many researches have been carried out on the application and impact of alcohols on the engine-out characteristics of SI engines. However, understanding the behaviours of combustion characteristics have humongous importance in acquiring improved performance and emission characteristics. Also, the improvisation of low carbon alcohols (LCA) powered SI engine has a higher potential in the automotive industry currently. The combustion characteristics can be analysed by combustion indicators like max. in-cylinder pressure (Pmax), heat release rate (HRR), combustion duration (CD) and ignition delay (ID). Therefore, this review is devoted to study and analyze the combustion characteristics of LCA powered SI engines. Also, this paper systematically reviews the impact of blend ratio, supplementary fuel, engine operational and design parameters on combustion characteristics of the engine LCA fuelled SI engines. The literature correlated to fuel and engine parameters was reviewed and epitomized to illustrate their impacts on combustion characteristics. Furthermore, the problem of transitioning from a traditional to an alcohol application is addressed, along with possible options for potential improvements to the future.

Critical review on combustion phenomena of low carbon alcohols in SI engine with its challenges and future directions

Methanol is gaining traction in some regions, e.g. for road transportation in China and for marine transportation in Europe. In this research, the possibility for achieving higher power output and higher efficiency with methanol, compared to gasoline, is investigated and the influence of several engine settings, such as valve timing and intake boost control, is studied. At wide open throttle (WOT), engine speed of 1650 rpm, the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) of the methanol-fueled engine is higher than on gasoline, by around 1.8 bar. The maximum BMEP is further increased when positive valve overlap and higher intake boost pressure are applied. Thanks to a lower residual gas fraction, and a richer in-cylinder mixture with positive valve overlap period, the engine BMEP improves by a further 2.6 bar. Because of higher volumetric efficiency with a boosted intake air, the engine BMEP enhances with 4.7 bar. The maximum BMEP for gasoline was found through a test matrix using the design of experiment approach. At that BMEP (16.3 bar), the efficiency when fueling the engine with methanol improves by 22.7% relatively with valve overlap control and by 25.75% with intake boost control. The BMEP of the methanol engine can increase to a higher value without knock when a higher boost pressure or a longer valve overlap duration is employed. Limitations are no longer engine knock, but excessive peak in-cylinder pressures, however, being over 100 bar. If the maximum pressure is limited to 100 bar, the downsizing potential with boost control is higher than with variable valve timing. The engine could be further downsized by ~10.7% with methanol by boosting the intake pressure.

Thomas Pillu

Papers

Downsizing potential of methanol fueled DISI engine with variable valve timing and boost control