Combustion Performance of n-butanol, Hydrous Ethanol and Their Blends as Potential Surrogates for the Brazilian Gasoline

Concerns about global warming, pollutant emissions and energy security have driven research towards cleaner and more environmentally friendly fuels. In the same way as ethanol, butanol is a promising biofuel but with different characteristics such as higher calorific value and lower latent heat of vaporization. It has similar properties to those of gasoline, which makes it a potential surrogate for this fossil fuel. Therefore, the present study proposes a comparison among four different fuels i.e. n-butanol, n-butanol and ethanol blend (B73E27), gasoline and ethanol blend (G73E27), and hydrous ethanol. A single cylinder naturally aspirated research engine with port fuel injection was employed. Engine performance was experimentally evaluated and combustion parameters were determined through reverse calculation based on acquired intake, exhaust and in-cylinder pressure on GT-Power. The results obtained in this work show that the Brazilian gasoline had the worst indicated efficiency among the biofuels. Hydrous ethanol had the best combustion phase, although the indicated efficiency was lower than B73E27 as result of the larger injected fuel quantity necessary to achieve the same engine load.