Effects of Methanol Application on Carbon Emissions and Pollutant Emissions Using a Passenger Vehicle

Abstract

Methanol, as a promising carbon-neutral fuel, has become a research hotspot worldwide. In this study, pure gasoline and gasoline blended with five different volume ratios of methanol (10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, and 75%) were selected as test fuels, which were referred to as M0, M10, M20, M30, M50, and M75. The experiments on carbon and pollutant emissions and performance were carried out on a passenger vehicle with gasoline direct injection (GDI) turbocharged engine using the steady-state, new European driving cycle (NEDC), and acceleration approaches. The results show that under steady-state conditions, as the methanol blending ratio increases, the volume of fuel consumption increases. Compared with pure gasoline, the equivalent fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions are reduced by 0.95 L/100 km (10.6%) and 18.95 g/km (9.6%) in maximum extent by fueling M75, respectively. In the NEDC, the CO2 emissions of M30 are reduced by 5.46 g/km (3.7%) compared with pure gasoline. After blending methanol in gasoline, CO emissions increase, and the emissions of NOx, THC, and PM decrease. The acceleration time is shortened with the increase of blending ratio of methanol. The application of methanol reduces the combustion CO2 emissions by 10% and improves the pollutant emissions.

Influence of Glycerol on Methanol Fuel Characteristics and Engine Combustion Performance

“…Gong et al [16] and Cui et al [17] found that increasing the temperature in the engine cylinder is the dominant factor to ensure the stable ignition of the direct injection methanol fuel in the cylinder. Wang et al [18] studied different types of preheating systems to enable the methanol ignition engine to start smoothly at the ambient temperature of −10 • C. Liu et al [19] found that increasing the intake air heating temperature to 120 • C can ensure the smooth start of a heavy-duty multi-cylinder diesel engine fuelled by methanol at a cooling water temperature of 30 • C.…”

The comparison of gasoline powered vehicle and serial hybrid vehicle on emissions

“…It is worth noting that a passenger vehicle equipped with a GDI turbocharged engine emits 5.46 g/km (3.7% less) of CO 2 than pure gasoline when tested with 30 vol% methanol added fuel in the NEDC [ 29 ]. Blending 20% n-butanol into gasoline reduces CO 2 emissions by 5.7% compared to gasoline [ 30 ].…”

Methanol-Gasoline Fuel Effectiveness Analysis Study

“…Methanol is an alternative fuel that offers lower CO emissions and higher efficiency. Methanol comes from biomass [5]. In addition to reducing CO, methanol fuel does not produce soot when burning in the combustion chamber, so the NOx content in the exhaust gas is not large.…”