Blending of Ethanol in Gasoline:Impact on SI Engine Performance and Emissions

In this work the performance and emission characteristics of a 4 stroke, 4 cylinder spark ignition MPFI engine was investigated with different ethanol gasoline (Gasohol) blends. Ethanol can also be used in C. I. engines as ethanol blended (Desihol) diesel, but due to its easy miscibility with Gasoline and having a higher octane number, ethanol is preferably blended with gasoline. Due to the higher ethanol blend usability constraints, in this work the investigation was kept limited to the low (5-15 % ethanol) ethanol gasoline blends. The present paper aims at discussing the low ethanol gasoline blends and gasoline (E0/G100), which were tested on a Maruti Suzuki Wagon R engine with a SAJ eddycurrent dynamometer unit. The performance parameters like brake power and thermal efficiency and exhaust emission parameters like CO, HC, NOx and CO2 were recorded. The results of this investigation prove the applicability of low ethanol blended Gasoline as clean fuel to reduce CO, HC and NOx emissions. Performance parameters show a marginal increase in BHP and thermal efficiency a little increase in specific fuel consumption, whereas the usefulness of the inherent oxygen content in the ethanol molecule has been proved through the occurrence of a higher peak cylinder pressure and a higher exhaust gas temperature.