A Comparative Study of the Ignition and Combustion Properties of Ethanol-Indolene Blends During HCCI Operation of a Single Cylinder Engine

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effects of indolene-ethanol blends on engine performance during homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) operation of single-cylinder engine. The engine performance and HCCI stability were investigated and the high enthalpy of vaporization of ethanol resulted in significant intake charge cooling and limited the stable HCCI operation to higher intake temperatures. In the second part of the study, intake air preheat temperature was used to compensate for some of the thermal effects introduced by the fuel blends. The effects of equivalence ratio at a same end of compression temperature for different fuel blends showed that increasing the ethanol content of the fuel blend can extend the stable HCCI lean operating limit. Engine performance was characterized by in-cylinder pressure data, heat release rate, indicated mean effective pressure and exhaust gas emissions (NO

and HC). Only the performance of E10 (10% ethanol/90% indolene by volume) blends were comparable to neat indolene. A model for estimating the HCCI ignition delay time, based on iso-octane ignition characteristics, was developed to interpret the effects of different fuel blends on the ignition timing.