The objective of this project was to develop a commercially competitive vehicle powered by ethanol (or an ethanol blend) that can meet California's ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) standards and equivalent corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) energy efficiency for a light-duty passenger car application. The defrnition of commercially competitive is independent of fuel cost, but does include technical requirements for competitive power, performance, refueling times, vehicle range, driveability, fuel handling safety, and overall emissions performance.This report summarizes the fourth and final phase of this project, and also the overall project. The focus of this report is the technology used to develop a dedicated ethanol-fueled ULEV, and the emissions results documenting ULEV performance. Some of the details for the control system and hardware changes are presented in two appendices that are SAE papers. The demonstrator vehicle has a number of advanced technological features, but it is currently configwed with standard original equipment manufacturer (OEM) under-engine catalysts. Close-coupled catalysts would improve emissions results further, but no close-coupled catalysts were available for this testing. Recently, close-coupled catalysts were obtained, but installation and testing will be performed in the future.This report also briefly summarizes work in several other related areas that supported the demonstrator vehicle work. Task 1 was fuel blending and testing, and iicluded the development of correlations to predict vapor pressure and flammability for ethanovhydrocarbon blends of various concentrations. Task 2 was fuel storage and fuel system compatibility studies. By starting with a flexible-fuel vehicle designed to operate on M85 (85% methanol, 15% gasoline) or gasoline, it was determined that the fuel system components were compatible with the ethanol fuel blends. Tasks 3,5, and 6 were directed at developing the engine and control system for the demonstrator vehicle, and calibrating that vehicle to meet ULEV standards. Task 4 was the investigation of advanced aftertreatment systems, and the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) emissions results. Some of this work was reported in the Phase 3 report, but that information is also included in this report. Additionally, the FTP results for the final demonstrator vehicle are reported in the Task 4 section. Task 7 describes the construction of a high-speed data acquisition system for measuring cylinder pressures integrated into the engine control system.
Executive SummaryEthanol is attractive as a transportation fuel because it is a renewable fuel that can be made from plant material, it has a very high octane number, it bums cooler than gasoline, and it typically produces lower carbon monoxide than gasoline because it is an oxygenated fuel. However, its relatively low volatility compared to gasoline raised the question about whether or not an ultra-low emissions vehicle (ULEV) could be produced from an ethanol-gasoline blend fuel. For that reason, the U.S. Depar...
