Comparative Study on Gasoline and Methanol in a Twin Spark IC Engine

Abstract

In search of a viable alternative to petrol and diesel, methanol, ethanol and biodiesel play an important role. Methanol and ethanol are traditional alternatives to petrol (gasoline) because of better engine performance and reduced emission of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburnt hydrocarbon (UBHC) and other harmful gases. This work represents the result of four sets of spark timings on engine performance and engine emissions when run on methanol and petrol. Exhaustive investigations are carried out on a variable compression ratio DTSi engine for both methanol and gasoline. Engine was run at full throttle and at a constant speed of 1600 RPM. The efficiency of the engine found to be enhanced with methanol fuel which has higher octane number and high laminar flame speed. Maximum efficiency was found to be ~25.45% and ~28.7% at compression ratio 10 for gasoline and methanol fuel, respectively. This is observed at 26°–24° BTDC (before top dead center) spark advance combination. Optimum compression ratio for gasoline and methanol is found to be 6.8 and 7.4, respectively, at this spark advance angle combination. Moreover, methanol fuel eventually emits lesser amount of CO, UBHC and NOx than gasoline under all experimental combinations.