Improving the Operation of Gasoline and Methanol Fuelled Spark Ignition Engines Under Canadian Winter Conditions

This paper reviews the practice of using mixture enrichment to address cold starting and warm-up difficulties. Excess fuel requirements for gasoline and methanol-based fuels such as M85 are discussed, and the environmental costs inherent in this approach are assessed. A rationale is presented for adopting cold starting approaches which avoid the need for excessively rich mixtures. A synergistic combination of plasma jet ignition and prompt exhaust gas recirculation is proposed as a means of realizing this goal and recent experimental results for both elements of the system are described.