Study of the Effects of Heated Ethanol Fuel on Engine Performance and Emissions Using Cfd Simulation

Abstract

The use of ethanol fuel in transportation sector can contribute a better contribution on energy sustainability and mitigate environmental pollutant emissions of this sector. However, the use of ethanol fuel is still challenging, the most common use of ethanol fuel is by blending it with gasoline. In this Ethanol is mostly supplied in a splash-blended form with gasoline or in a pure form; however, this is not an optimal way of using ethanol because the use of ethanol leads to increased brake specific fuel consumption. Recently, Ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI+GPI) has been developed as a new technology for using ethanol fuel more effectively and efficiently in IC engine. In this study, the use of pre-heated ethanol fuel and by directly injecting the heated ethanol to the combustion chamber, and gasoline port injecting method using CFD simulation has been done, on EDI+GPI engines, to investigate the effects of heated ethanol fuel on performance and emission of engine by using ANSYS ICE package. The results show that increasing the ratio and temperature of ethanol fuel from 15% to 50% and from 300K to 340K, respectively, will enhance the performance of engine and reduce the emission from the engine. The simulation results depicted that operating the engine with ethanol fuel at a temperature of 340K produce best engine performance in terms of in-cylinder pressure and temperature for all fuel ratios. Ethanol 50% fuel ratio (i.e. ethanol 50% and gasoline 50%) gives best engine performance with additional reduction in in-cylinder temperature of the combustion chamber that significant contribution to reduce the pollutants emission of the engine