A Comparative Study of Ethanol and Methanol Addition Effects on Engine Performance, Combustion and Emissions in the SI Engine

Abstract

In this study, the availability of methanol instead of ethanol was investigated in terms of performance, emission and combustion characteristics. The experiments were conducted in a single cylinder, four-stroke SI engine for different engine speeds at full engine load. Test fuels were prepared by 10% ethanol and methanol addition into gasoline. According to the experimental results, while methanol addition increased bsfc values by 10.3% compared to ethanol addition, it caused a reduction to the bte values by 6.12%. The methanol addition fuel has shown similar combustion characteristics with ethanol addition fuel. Although the methanol addition decreased CO2, CO, HC and NOx emissions by 6.48%, 26.6%, 4.75% and 9.16% respectively compared to ethanol addition, it has higher oxygen emission values by 15.3% due to its higher oxygen content than ethanol. These results show that methanol can also use as an additive for gasoline like ethanol.

Keywords

• combustion characteristics
• ethanol
• exhaust emissions
• methanol
• si engine