Effect of n-butanol fuel additive to methanol-gasoline blend on combustion and emission characteristics in a single cylinder spark ignition engine

Abstract

In order to reduce the effect of emissions on the environment by burning petroleum oil in engines, researchers have sought out one of the solutions to be the blending of oxygenated additives with the fossil fuels. In this study n-butanol was added to a blend of methanol-gasoline fuel. The effects on Combustion and emission are reported using a single cylinder Octane rating BASF internal combustion engine. The results obtained indicated that the combustion duration reduced with increased shared volume of n-butanol in the methanol-gasoline blends. The blends used were M10, (10% methanol 90% gasoline by volume), M10:20 (10% methanol, 20% n-butanol, 70% gasoline), M20:30, M80:10. The peak pressure increased with the methanol fraction in the blend with gasoline. Unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions reduced with m80 to about 300 ppm and reduced even further with 10% n-butanol added to m80 showing that n-butanol has the effect of reducing UHC emissions when methanol fraction is above 20% in gasoline. As n-butanol was increased further by 30% in m20 (M20:30), Nox concentration did not change significantly when comparing values with the blends of m10 and M10:20