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Methanol is an alternative fuel for IC engine and has high potential
as future fuel. Methanol is renewable and attractive alternative fue. Methanol derived from the organic wastes, municipal solid
waste (MSW), agricultural waste, low-grade coal, and atmospheric CO2,
can be used as an alternative fuel in spark ignition (SI) as well as
compression ignition (CI) engines. The properties of methanol are
quite similar to gasoline. Application of methanol in engines is
rather marginal as of now, but is definitely a promising alternative
fuel preferably for diesel and gasoline engines compared to other biofuels
and thus can contribute to the nation’s transportation sector.
Methanol has much higher-octane ratings than typical conventional
fuel ─ which allows methanol engines to have much higher compression
ratios for increasing thermal efficiency. A significant advantage of
Methanol fuel is that resulted emissions are less reactive in the
atmosphere, producing smaller amounts of ozone and it produce significantly less soot . Due to
high latent heat of vaporization, it can produce very low levels of
oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and gives cooler intake process. Emission
from the methanol fuelled engines is sulphur free. In engine
research laboratory, many engines such as two-wheeler engine (Royal
Enfield and Hero), car engine (Maruti Wagon R) and generator engine
(7.5 kVA, 15 kVA, and 140 kVA) are fuelled with methanol. Methanol
is introduced in these engines either by blending or by fumigation. In genset and two-wheeler engines 85 % fuel
(energy basis)is
replaced by methanol. The experiments were performed at different
load and methanol percentage to evaluate engine combustion,
performances and emissions. In this experiment engine performance
has improved and harmful emission reduced. The implementation of
this technique for the larger bore engines are in process. This work
is in the support of Indian Government initiative of Methanol
Economy. |
