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The
rise in consumption of petroleum products with time and imposition
of stringent emission norms worldwide has created the need of
alternative fuels which can displace these conventional fuels. The
alternative fuels
are economical, environmental friendly and easily available energy
sources as compared to the conventional fuels. There are many alternatives
in the list like Ethers, biodiesel, alcohols etc. Among
these, alcohols mainly ethanol and methanol seems to be great
alternative because of their chemicals as well as physical
characteristics. Alcohols are simply produced
from biomass feed stocks. Alcohols have higher octane number
(methanol (99) and ethanol (100)) compared to gasoline thus allowing
engines to have higher compression ratio and hence the thermal
efficiency. Alcohols have higher latent heat of vaporisation
(methanol(1098kJ/kg) and ethanol(838kJ/kg)), thus the increased
cooling effect leading to less amount of NOx formation and also
increased volumetric efficiency with less work required during
compression stroke. Since, the oxygen content in alcohol are higher,
so the emissions from the alcohol gasoline blends are less. Thus,
currently in this latest BS-VI compliant Maruti Wagon R engine (K10
B Model), different regulated and unregulated emissions are measured
using methanol gasoline blends of different proportions. |
