Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Gasoline-Methyl Ethyl Ketone Fuel Blends on Engine Performance and Exhaust Emissions

Abstract

Gasoline engines have been widely used because of operating with stoichiometric ratio and lower exhaust emissions compared to compression ignition engines. However, thermal efficiency is less than diesel engines due to lower compression ratio. In the present study, the influences of methyl ethyl addition were researched on engine performance, CO, CO2 and HC emissions in a single cylinder spark ignition engine. For this purpose, the test engine was run at wide-open throttle, engine speeds of 2400, 2800, 3200, 3600, 4000 rpm and the variations of engine torque, effective power, specific fuel consumption (SFC), thermal efficiency, CO, CO2 and HC emissions were investigated. It has been observed that engine power and torque increase and SFC decreases as methyl ethyl ketone is added to gasoline. It was observed that the thermal efficiency at 2800 rpm increased by 6.47%, 13.81% and 19.51%, respectively, with MEK20, MEK30 and MEK40 test fuels compared to gasoline. As the methyl ethyl ketone ratio in the blended fuels increased, HC and CO emissions reduced compared to gasoline. As a result, it was seen that methyl ethyl ketone additive can be utilized easily in a spark ignition engine without making any modification.