Butanol - A single-cylinder engine study: Availability analysis

The availability analysis of a spark-ignition engine using a butanol-gasoline blend has been experimentally investigated. A Hydra single-cylinder, spark-ignition, fuel-injection engine was used over a wide range of fuel/air equivalence ratios (phi = 0.8-1.2) at a 30% volume butanol-gasoline blend. The goal of this research was to study the effect of using a butanol-gasoline blend in a spark-ignition engine in terms of first- and second-law efficiency. In addition, the optimal engine conditions of energy utilization were investigated. Results show that, at phi = 0.9, when a butanol-gasoline blend is used, the energy analysis indicates that only 35.4% of the fuel energy can be utilized as an indicated power, where 64.6% of fuel energy is not available for conversion to useful work. The availability analysis shows that 50.6% of fuel energy can be utilized as useful work (34.28% as an indicated power, 12.48% from the exhaust and only 3.84% from the cooling water) and the available energy unaccounted for represents 49.4% of the total available energy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.