A Study of the Effects of Bioethanol-Gasoline Blends on Vehicle Emissions

Abstract

The economic value of biofuels has been increasing in the area of energy and in other areas of use due to the increasing energy crisis. The use of ethanol in engines is more common in countries where agricultural crops are abundantly cultivated. Ethanol is a convenient fuel for spark-ignition engines owing to its characteristics and it can be used in engines singly or by blending with gasoline at certain rates. It has been observed that the use of ethanol in motor vehicles results in decreased exhaust emissions of harmful pollutants. In this study, bioethanol produced from sugar beet was used as a blending component. Gasoline-bioethanol blends containing 2% and 5% ethanol by volume were used as fuel in a gasoline engine vehicle and 95 octane gasoline was accepted as the control fuel. As a result of the experiments carried out, it was observed that the use of ethanol resulted in a decrease in CO, CO 2 , HC and NOx emissions and an increase was observed in the value of O 2 emissions in the exhaust.