Ford Methanol FFV Performance/Emissions Experience

The progress and interim results of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) demonstration program are reported.

Four FFVs have been operated for a total of more than 150,000 miles. Two FFVs were operated for 50,000 miles on gasoline and have switched over to using M85. The other two vehicles have been primarily using MB5. The FFVs were tested for exhaust emissions on a chassis dynamometer over the FTP, HFET and NYCC driving schedules. The vehicles were fueled with gasoline, M85 and in one test M60. In a series of tests they were also evaluated using inactive catalysts to measure catalyst effectiveness and deterioration. Results for the dependency of emissions on fuel composition, mileage and driving schedule are presented. In general, emissions decreased with increasing methanol content and increased with mileage. Catalyst “effectiveness” increased with increasing methanol content except for CO emissions in Bag 1 of the FTP where catalyst effectiveness decreased with increasing methanol content. Fuel economy decreased with increasing methanol content and was very dependent on driving schedule but was not dependent on mileage, and showed few vehicle-to-vehicle variations. Driveability, performance, and durability are also discussed.