Experimental Studies on Butanol/Gasoline Fuel Blends in a Four Stroke Engine Powered Motorcycle

Butanol is one of the potential alternative fuels that can be used in IC engines in the same way as gasoline. This paper investigates the application of butanol as a blending component for gasoline fuel used in single cylinder four stroke motorcycle engine. Different blending ratio of 5, 10, 20 & 30% butanol-gasoline prepared were used for the study. The motorcycle engine tested on the chassis dynamometer had displacement of 100 cm³. The performance testing under steady state were simulated by running the vehicle on road load simulation and wide open throttle test modes at steady speeds of 40, 50, 60 and 70 km/h. The fuels were also examined using transient Indian Driving Cycle. The test results indicated that butanol-gasoline blended fuel can be a promising alternate for automotive application.