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In the last years new and stricter pollutant emission regulations together with raised cost of conventional fuels resulted in an increased use of gaseous fuels, such as Natural Gas (NG) or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), for passenger vehicles. Bi-fuel engines represent a transition phase product, allowing to run either with gasoline or with gas, and for this reason are equipped with two separate injection systems. When operating at high loads with gasoline, however, these engines require rich mixtures and retarded combustions in order to prevent from dangerous knocking phenomena: this causes high hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions together with high fuel consumption.

The performance of a spark ignition engine strongly depends on the phase of the combustion process with respect to piston motion, and hence on the spark advance; this fundamental parameter is actually controlled in open-loop by means of maps drawn up on the test bench and stored in the Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Bi-fuel engines (e.g. running either on gasoline or on natural gas) require a double mapping process in order to obtain a spark timing map for each of the fuels. This map based open-loop control however does not assure to run the engine always with the best spark timing, which can be influenced by many factors, like ambient condition of pressure, temperature and humidity, fuel properties, engine wear. A feedback control instead can maintain the spark advance at its optimal value apart from operative and boundary conditions, so as to gain the best performance (or minimum fuel consumption).

As is known gaseous fuels, such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas (NG), thanks to their good mixing capabilities, allow complete and cleaner combustion than normal gasoline, resulting in lower pollutant emissions and particulate matter. Some of the automobile producers already put on the market “bi-fuel” engines, which may be fed either with standard gasoline or with LPG. These engines, endowed of two separate injection systems, are originally designed for gasoline operation; hence they do not fully exploit the good qualities of LPG, such as its better knocking resistance, which would allow higher compression ratios. Moreover, when running with gasoline at medium high loads, the engine is often operated with rich mixture and low spark advance (with respect to the maximum brake torque value) in order to prevent from dangerous knocking phenomena: this produces both high hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions and high fuel consumption.

Bi-fuel spark ignition engines, nowadays widely spread, are usually equipped with two independent injection systems, in order run the engine either with gasoline or with gaseous fuel, which can be Natural Gas (NG) or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). These gases, besides lower cost and environmental impact, are also characterized by a higher knock resistance with respect to gasoline that allows to adopt a stoichiometric proportion with air also at full load. Gasoline, on the other hand, being injected as liquid, maintains higher volumetric efficiency and hence higher power output.