Low Temperature Starting on a Pure Ethanol Fuelled Direct Injection Engine

In the current study cold start tests have been performed on a multi-cylinder, spray guided direct injection, spark ignition engine. The direct injection system was a centrally mounted dual fluid type injecting fuel and air simultaneously. The engine has been started on ethanol at soaked temperatures from +25°C through to -10°C. Development of engine hardware, software and calibration was undertaken to optimise cold start times, whilst quality metrics were used to evaluate the performance of the starts. Consideration has been taken to restrict hardware options to production viable components. Conclusions are drawn regarding the start performance of an E100 spray guide DI engine at low temperatures.