Experimental Investigation of the Effects of E85 and Gasoline on NO Emission in a Spark Ignition Engine

Abstract

Energy need is one of the indispensable needs of human beings. At this point, the important thing is to use the available resource that is sustainable, economical, and sensitive to the ecosystem. For this reason, alternative fuels will maintain their importance in the future as they do today. Internal combustion engines continue to be used as power plants for conventional and hybrid vehicles. The sustainability of internal combustion engines depends on their energy consumption and the emissions released. In this study, the effects of E85 and gasoline on NO emissions have been investigated experimentally by considering ignition timing and relative air/fuel ratio in a spark ignition engine. The experiments have been performed on the Ricardo Hydra research engine at 2000 rpm engine speed and a 10:1 compression ratio. The experimental results show that engine output power obtained using E85 was similar to or higher than that of E0. The exhaust gas temperatures for E85 decreased by an average of 22.6 °C, compared to E0. When all experimental data obtained with E0 and E85 were compared with each other, it was seen that gravimetric fuel consumption and brake specific fuel consumption were increased on average by 39.3% and 37.5%, respectively. The results of this study show that especially the improvement of E85 in NO emission is remarkable. Considering the maximum NO point at 1.05 or 1.1 relative air/fuel ratio, a 38.4% reduction in brake specific NO was obtained with E85.