Search Results

This paper explores the potential for reducing transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by introducing high-efficiency spark-ignition engines with a dual-fuel injection system to customize the octane of the fuels based on real-time engine requirements. It is assumed that a vehicle was equipped with two fuel tanks and two injection systems; one port fuel injection and one direct injection line separately. Each tank carried low octane and high octane fuel so that real-time octane blending was occurred in the combustion chamber when needed (Octane On-Demand: OOD). A refinery naphtha was selected for low octane fuel (RON=61), because of its similarity to gasoline properties but a less processed, easier to produce without changing a refinery configuration. Three oxygenates were used for high octane knock-resistant fuels in a direct injection line: methanol, MTBE, and ETBE.

Conventional fossil fuels will constitute the majority of automotive fuels for the foreseeable future but will have to adapt to changes in engine technology. Unconventional transport fuels such as biofuels, gas-to-liquid fuels, compressed natural gas, and liquid petroleum gas will also play a role. Hydrogen might be a viable transport fuel if it overcomes barriers in production, transport, storage, and safety and/or if fuel cells become viable. This book opens by considering these issues and then introduces practical transport fuels. A chapter on engine deposits follows, which is an important practical topic about how fuels affect engines that is not usually considered in other books. The next three chapters discuss auto-ignition phenomena in engines. The auto-ignition resistance of fuels is the most important fuel property since it limits the efficiency of spark ignition engines and determines the performance of compression ignition engines.