Sustainable Transportation by Using Ethanol in Diesel Engines

Authors

E. Iverfeldt M.Sc., P. Stalhammar M.Sc.,
H. Sarby M.Sc., C. Ihrfors M.Sc., B. Westman M.Sc., Scania CV AB, Södertälje

Year

2015

Print Info

Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 783

Summary

One of the more important contributions to a sustainable transportation is the use of biofuels. The effect on greenhouse gas emissions is immediate and the increase in cost is often relatively small. Ethanol is the fuel with highest production potential of all commercially available biofuels. With a sustainable production process, the greenhouse gas reduction can be more than 90% compared with fossil fuel. Ethanol has a very high octane number which makes it suitable in a spark ignited engine but challenging to use in a diesel engine. However, with altered fuel ignition characteristics and engine adaptations it is possible to use ethanol in a diesel engine and take benefit from the more efficient combustion process. Scania launched its first compression ignited engine for ethanol on the market in 1984 and is now developing the fourth generation ethanol engines. The low cetane rating of the fuel has been addressed with a fuel ignition improver as well as high compression ratio. Ethanol burns naturally with low combustion temperature, leading to low amounts of nitrogen oxide emissions. Since the fuel is oxygenated, very little particulates (PM) are produced during combustion. This paper presents the development of next generation ethanol engine.