Alcohol Fuels in Low-Temperature Combustion Engines

Abstract

Low-temperature combustions strategy in internal combustion engines provides lower emissions beside high engine performance in according to chemically control combustion temperature. This strategy is divided into three engine types which are premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI), homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI), and reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engines. Low-temperature combustion strategies usually used two various fuels with low and high reactivity. The main purpose of LTC is to providing a lean homogenous air/fuel mixture to obtain lower emissions beside appropriate engine power. Various fuel delivery strategies and different fuels are used in LTC which can be low-reactivity fuels such as gasoline and alcohols and high-reactivity fuels such as diesel and dimethyl ether; a combination of low- and high-reactivity fuels is also in LTC strategies. Among all low-reactivity fuels, alcohol fuels were used in various researches by interested scientists. Ethanol, methanol, butanol, and n-butanol are four types of fuels which were used as low-reactivity fuels in low-temperature combustion engines. These fuels are usually used with high-reactivity fuels such as diesel (n-heptane in numerical works) or due to cooling effects employed at high engine loads as single fuels. Various properties of alcohol fuels make different influences on engine combustion and emission characteristics. This chapter categorized LTC strategies in which alcohol fuels are used as alternative fuel.