Effectiveness of Butanol and Deposit Control Additive in Fuel to Reduce Deposits of Gasoline Direct Injection Engine Injectors
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Butanol as an Engine Fuel
Property | Gasoline | Butanol |
---|---|---|
Chemical formula | C8H18 | C4H9OH |
Molecular weight [g/mol] | 114 | 74.11 |
Fuel density in 20 °C [kg/m3] | 736.8 | 806 |
Viscosity [mPa·s] | 0.4–0.8 | 2.57–3.33 |
Excess air ratio | 14.7 | 11.17 |
Heat of vaporization [kJ/kg] | 349 | 683 |
Oxygen content [%(m/m)] | 0 | 21.6 |
Vapor pressure acc. to Reid at 37.8 °C [kPa] | 63.9 | 6.6 |
Research octane number | 95 | 105.1 |
3. Aim and Scope of the Study
- the effect of the fuel used on the duration of fuel injection;
- visual evaluation of injector orifices;
- determining the effect of injector contamination on geometric spray indicators.
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Motor Fuels
4.2. Engine Test Methodology
- (a)
- with constant speed n = 2000 rpm;
- (b)
- with a constant load Mo = 56 Nm;
- (c)
- with constant injection pressure p = 7.7 MPa;
- (d)
- with a constant excess air ratio of 1.
- Keep-Clean: is a 48 h test during which the engine is operated under constant speed (2000 rpm) and constant load (56 Nm) conditions. It allows evaluation of the base or refined fuel in terms of its ability to keep the injectors clean;
- Clean-Up: includes a 48 h part of the Keep-Clean test and a 24 h part of the Clean-Up test in which the engine runs under the same conditions as before. The test allows evaluation of the cleaning properties of the fuel used in the Clean-Up part of the test.
4.3. Optical Testing Methodology
4.3.1. Test and Measurement Apparatus
4.3.2. Lighting Sources
4.3.3. Optical Microscope
5. Evaluation of Engine Tests—Change of Fuel Dose
6. Fuel Jet Geometric Indicator Evaluation
7. Fuel Jet Cross-Section Analysis
8. Visual Assessment of the Injector Nozzles
9. Conclusions
- The research on changes in fuel injection time indicates that there is a relationship between the use of fuel additives and injection time:
- Butanol admixture to the base fuel deposits the injector, and the changes are linear;
- Butanol admixture causes a linear increase in injection time up to about 30% of the duration of the engine dynamometer test; after that, injection time stabilization is observed, indicating no further deposit formation;
- The use of butanol-blended gasoline (without DCA) in the CleanUp procedure does not change significantly the contamination status of the injectors;
- The use of fuel with the addition of DCA in the CleanUp procedure causes a sharp increase in the flow cross-section of the injector orifices (as evidenced by the reduction in fuel injection time).
- Studies on geometric indicators of the jet under halogen lighting indicate:
- The spray area analysis shows that the results coincide with those of the studies on injection time changes; the use of standard fuel significantly reduces the spray area due to deposit;
- The spray area corresponds to the angle of the cone;
- The degree of coking of the injector has no significant effect on the jet penetration;
- The use of the CleanUp phase with butanol yields better results than running the injector on a mixture of base fuel and butanol during the Keep-Clean phase (14.1% increase in area field);
- The addition of DCA achieves the best results from the analyzed cases in restoring injector patency.
- The research on the evaluation of the jet in cross-section using laser illumination made the following possible:
- Determination of the size of the cross-sectional projection of the fuel jet, which makes it possible to evaluate the spray area for each atomizer orifice separately;
- Assessing the degree of contamination of the injectors by analyzing the optical merging or significant reduction of the outflow of the injected fuel jet;
- Assessment of the unevenness of fuel outflow from the injector orifices.
- Observation of the condition of the tip of the atomizer using an optical microscope allowed us to determine the following conclusions:
- The use of base fuel causes the formation of numerous deposits, which can even completely pivot the mouths of the injector channels of a GDI-type injector;
- The admixture of butanol to the fuel (base + 20B) in the Keep-Clean (base + 20B) test can cause only partial journaling of the mouth of the channels of the GDI-type injector;
- The admixture of butanol in the Keep-Clean (base) + CleanUp (base + 20B) test appears to have a marked effect on reducing deposit formation relative to the base or butanol-doped fuel in the 48 h test;
- The occurrence of sparse deposits at the mouth of the nozzle channel of the GDI-type injector on the side of the combustion chamber when operated with the DCA-type fuel indicates the effectiveness of reducing deposit formation by the additive used.
- The potential of the hybrid test methodology presented in this paper will allow it to be used in the future to assess injector deposits formed by fuels containing up to 85%(v/v) alcohol. It is also possible to use this test methodology to assess injector deposits of compression ignition engines.
- Based on the conclusions, it would be worth expanding the study in the future to use other alcohols and evaluate the effects of their interaction with DCA. In addition, optical microscopy proved to be instrumental in identifying injector tip fouling. For better visual evaluation of the holes’ interiors, it is worthwhile to undertake studies using a scanning electron microscope.
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Property | Unit | RF-12-09 Batch 11 | RF-12-09 Batch 11 + 20% (v/v) Butanol | RF-12-09 Batch 11 + 20% (v/v) Butanol + 500 mg/kg DCA | Test Procedure |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notation | base | base+20B | base+20B+DCA | ||
Research octane number | – | 96.2 | 98.8 | 98.8 | EN ISO 5164 |
Motor octane number | – | 86.1 | 88.7 | 88.7 | EN ISO 5163 |
Sulfur content | mg/kg | 5.0 | 3.8 | 3.7 | EN ISO 20846:2020 |
Content of hydrocarbon types: | EN 15553:2009 | ||||
olefinic | % (v/v) | 5.5 | <5.0 | <5 | |
aromatic | % (v/v) | 27.8 | 25.4 | 23.8 | |
Oxygen | % (m/m) | 4.94 | 4.57 | 4.42 | EN 1601:2017-09 |
Organic compounds containing | EN 1601:2009 | ||||
oxygen: | |||||
butanol | % (v/v) | <0.17 | 20.2 | 20.1 | |
ethanol | % (v/v) | <0.17 | <0.17 | <0.17 | |
Fractional composition: | EN ISO + 3405:2019 | ||||
T10 | °C | 52.5 | 61.7 | 59.4 | |
T50 | °C | 106.8 | 102.6 | 101.9 | |
T90 | °C | 173.2 | 153.4 | 153.8 |
Fuel | Base | Base + 20B | Base + 20B + DCA | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Test | ||||
Keep-Clean (48 h) | Yes | Yes | ||
Keep-Clean (48 h) + Clean-Up (24 h) | Yes | Yes |
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Pielecha, I.; Stępień, Z.; Szwajca, F.; Kinal, G. Effectiveness of Butanol and Deposit Control Additive in Fuel to Reduce Deposits of Gasoline Direct Injection Engine Injectors. Energies 2023, 16, 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010077
Pielecha I, Stępień Z, Szwajca F, Kinal G. Effectiveness of Butanol and Deposit Control Additive in Fuel to Reduce Deposits of Gasoline Direct Injection Engine Injectors. Energies. 2023; 16(1):77. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010077
Chicago/Turabian StylePielecha, Ireneusz, Zbigniew Stępień, Filip Szwajca, and Grzegorz Kinal. 2023. "Effectiveness of Butanol and Deposit Control Additive in Fuel to Reduce Deposits of Gasoline Direct Injection Engine Injectors" Energies 16, no. 1: 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010077