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Research involving the use of natural gas in internal combustion engines has been intensified due to concerns with the environment and exhaustion of fossil fuels reserves. In Brazil the abundance of natural gas, together with the need to reduce green house gases emissions and noise of urban buses, presented the opportunity to develop a Diesel-CNG control for Diesel engines using a mechanical diesel pump. An add-on system was developed using a production Engine Control Module. In this system, compressed natural gas (CNG) is added into the intake air stream and a pilot injection of diesel fuel is used to achieve ignition. One advantage of the Diesel-CNG system over a diesel engine converted to CNG usage using spark ignition is that the engine can operate in a diesel only mode; not reducing the resale price of the vehicle to regions less served with CNG fueling stations.

Worldwide research on alternative fuels has been intensified due to environmental concern and diminishing of conventional fossil fuels reserves. In Brazil, the usage of fossil fuel for the production of sugar cane has been improved over the years, but there still room for improvements. It is estimated that for 1 ton of processed sugar cane about 2 liters of diesel fuel is used. Over the last year, a fleet of around 110,000 agricultural machines and trucks burned about 1.2 billion liters of diesel. Along with the opportunity of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases there is also an economic advantage of using ethanol because it cost the producer about half the price of the diesel fuel. The reasons above motivated us to develop a diesel-ethanol control for diesel engines using a mechanical diesel injection pumps. An add-on system was developed using an ECM used for passenger vehicles to control engines with either 4 or 6 cylinders.