CA2588385A1 - Variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines - Google Patents
Variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines Download PDFInfo
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- CA2588385A1 CA2588385A1 CA002588385A CA2588385A CA2588385A1 CA 2588385 A1 CA2588385 A1 CA 2588385A1 CA 002588385 A CA002588385 A CA 002588385A CA 2588385 A CA2588385 A CA 2588385A CA 2588385 A1 CA2588385 A1 CA 2588385A1
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- Prior art keywords
- ethanol
- knock
- engine
- knock agent
- fuel
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- 239000003502 gasoline Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 79
- PFWOQOGCSSAGBU-UHFFFAOYSA-N ethanol;octane Chemical compound CCO.CCCCCCCC PFWOQOGCSSAGBU-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 title claims description 5
- LFQSCWFLJHTTHZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Ethanol Chemical compound CCO LFQSCWFLJHTTHZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims abstract description 340
- 239000000446 fuel Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 86
- 239000006079 antiknock agent Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 61
- 238000002347 injection Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 48
- 239000007924 injection Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 48
- TVMXDCGIABBOFY-UHFFFAOYSA-N octane Chemical compound CCCCCCCC TVMXDCGIABBOFY-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 47
- OKKJLVBELUTLKV-UHFFFAOYSA-N Methanol Chemical compound OC OKKJLVBELUTLKV-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 15
- 230000008021 deposition Effects 0.000 claims description 8
- 239000000203 mixture Substances 0.000 claims description 8
- XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N water Substances O XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 8
- 239000000314 lubricant Substances 0.000 claims description 7
- BZLVMXJERCGZMT-UHFFFAOYSA-N Methyl tert-butyl ether Chemical compound COC(C)(C)C BZLVMXJERCGZMT-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 6
- DKGAVHZHDRPRBM-UHFFFAOYSA-N Tert-Butanol Chemical compound CC(C)(C)O DKGAVHZHDRPRBM-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 5
- NUMQCACRALPSHD-UHFFFAOYSA-N tert-butyl ethyl ether Chemical compound CCOC(C)(C)C NUMQCACRALPSHD-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 4
- 230000006835 compression Effects 0.000 abstract description 7
- 238000007906 compression Methods 0.000 abstract description 7
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 description 17
- 238000007726 management method Methods 0.000 description 14
- 238000009834 vaporization Methods 0.000 description 11
- 230000008016 vaporization Effects 0.000 description 11
- 230000007423 decrease Effects 0.000 description 9
- 238000013517 stratification Methods 0.000 description 8
- 230000008901 benefit Effects 0.000 description 7
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 7
- 239000007789 gas Substances 0.000 description 6
- 238000002485 combustion reaction Methods 0.000 description 5
- 230000003247 decreasing effect Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000002156 mixing Methods 0.000 description 3
- 239000002028 Biomass Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000004364 calculation method Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000005119 centrifugation Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000009467 reduction Effects 0.000 description 2
- HVZJRWJGKQPSFL-UHFFFAOYSA-N tert-Amyl methyl ether Chemical compound CCC(C)(C)OC HVZJRWJGKQPSFL-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- -1 ETBE Chemical compound 0.000 description 1
- 230000001133 acceleration Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000654 additive Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000000996 additive effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000013459 approach Methods 0.000 description 1
- QVGXLLKOCUKJST-UHFFFAOYSA-N atomic oxygen Chemical compound [O] QVGXLLKOCUKJST-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 238000005474 detonation Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000004821 distillation Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000008030 elimination Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000003379 elimination reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 150000002170 ethers Chemical class 0.000 description 1
- 239000002816 fuel additive Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000002828 fuel tank Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000010438 heat treatment Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000006872 improvement Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000007788 liquid Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000001301 oxygen Substances 0.000 description 1
- 229910052760 oxygen Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000000926 separation method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000012360 testing method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000011800 void material Substances 0.000 description 1
Classifications
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02D—CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES
- F02D19/00—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures
- F02D19/06—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed
- F02D19/0639—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed characterised by the type of fuels
- F02D19/0649—Liquid fuels having different boiling temperatures, volatilities, densities, viscosities, cetane or octane numbers
- F02D19/0652—Biofuels, e.g. plant oils
- F02D19/0655—Biofuels, e.g. plant oils at least one fuel being an alcohol, e.g. ethanol
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02B—INTERNAL-COMBUSTION PISTON ENGINES; COMBUSTION ENGINES IN GENERAL
- F02B17/00—Engines characterised by means for effecting stratification of charge in cylinders
- F02B17/005—Engines characterised by means for effecting stratification of charge in cylinders having direct injection in the combustion chamber
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02D—CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES
- F02D19/00—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures
- F02D19/06—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed
- F02D19/0663—Details on the fuel supply system, e.g. tanks, valves, pipes, pumps, rails, injectors or mixers
- F02D19/0686—Injectors
- F02D19/0689—Injectors for in-cylinder direct injection
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02D—CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES
- F02D19/00—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures
- F02D19/06—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed
- F02D19/0663—Details on the fuel supply system, e.g. tanks, valves, pipes, pumps, rails, injectors or mixers
- F02D19/0686—Injectors
- F02D19/0692—Arrangement of multiple injectors per combustion chamber
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02D—CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES
- F02D19/00—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures
- F02D19/06—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed
- F02D19/08—Controlling engines characterised by their use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures peculiar to engines working with pluralities of fuels, e.g. alternatively with light and heavy fuel oil, other than engines indifferent to the fuel consumed simultaneously using pluralities of fuels
- F02D19/081—Adjusting the fuel composition or mixing ratio; Transitioning from one fuel to the other
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
- F02D—CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES
- F02D41/00—Electrical control of supply of combustible mixture or its constituents
- F02D41/0025—Controlling engines characterised by use of non-liquid fuels, pluralities of fuels, or non-fuel substances added to the combustible mixtures
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02T—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION
- Y02T10/00—Road transport of goods or passengers
- Y02T10/10—Internal combustion engine [ICE] based vehicles
- Y02T10/30—Use of alternative fuels, e.g. biofuels
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
- Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
- Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
- Biotechnology (AREA)
- Botany (AREA)
- Sustainable Development (AREA)
- Sustainable Energy (AREA)
- Output Control And Ontrol Of Special Type Engine (AREA)
Abstract
Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as to control knock and minimize that amount of the anti-knock agent that is used in a drive cycle. It is preferred that the anti-knock agent is ethanol. The use of ethanol can be further minimized by injection in a non-uniform manner within a cylinder. The ethanol injection suppresses knock so that higher compression ratio and/or engine downsizing from increased turbocharging or supercharging can be used to increase the efficiency of the engine.
Description
Variable Ethanol Octane Enhancement of Gasoline Engines Background of the Invention This invention relates to spark ignition gasoline engines utilizing an antiknock agent which is ,a liquid fuel with a higher octane number than gasoline such as ethanol to improve engine efficiency.
It is known that the efficiency of spark ignition (SI) gasoline engines can be increased by high compression ratio operation and particularly by engine downsizing.
The engine downsizing is made possible by the use of substantial pressure boosting from either turbocharging or supercharging. Such pressure boosting makes it possible to obtain the same performance in a significantly smaller engine. See, J. Stokes, et al., "A
Gasoline Engine Concept For Improved Fuel Economy - The Lean-Boost System,"
SAE
Paper 2001-01-2902. The use of these techniques to increase engine efficiency, however, is limited by the onset of engine knock. Knock is the undesired detonation of fuel and can severely damage an engine. If knock can be prevented, then high compression ratio operation and high pressure boosting can be used to increase engine efficiency by up to twenty-five percent.
Octane number represents the resistance of a fuel to knocking but the use of higher octane gasoline only modestly alleviates the tendency to knock. For example, the difference between regular and premium gasoline is typically six octane numbers. That is significantly less than is needed to realize fully the efficiency benefits of high compression ratio or turbocharged operation. There is thus a need for a practical means for achieving a much higher level of octane enhancement so that engines can be operated much more efficiently.
It is known to replace a portion of gasoline with small amounts of ethanol added at the refinery. Ethanol has a blending octane number (ON) of 110 (versus 95 for premium gasoline) (see J.B. Heywood, "Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals,"
McGraw Hill, 1988, p. 477) and is also attractive because it is a renewable energy, biomass-derived fuel, but the small amounts of ethanol that have heretofore been added to gasoline have had a relatively small impact on engine performance. Ethanol is much more expensive than gasoline and the amount of ethanol that is readily available is much smaller than that of gasoline because of the relatively limited amount of biomass that is available for its production. An object of the present invention is to minimize the amount of ethanol or other antiknock agent that is used to achieve a given level of engine efficiency increase. By restricting the use of ethanol to the relatively small fraction of time in an operating cycle when it is needed to prevent knock in a higher load regime and by minimizing its use at these times, the amount of ethanol that is required can be limited to a relatively small fraction of the fuel used by the spark ignition gasoline engine.
Summary of the Invention In one aspect, the invention is a fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine including a source of an antiknock agent such as ethanol. An injector directly injects the ethanol into a cylinder of the engine and a fuel management system controls injection of the antiknock agent into the cylinder to control knock with minimum use of the antiknock agent. A preferred antiknock agent is ethanol.
Ethanol has a high heat of vaporization so that there is substantial cooling of the air-fuel charge to the cylinder when it is injected directly into the engine. This cooling effect reduces the octane requirement of the engine by a considerable amount in addition to the improvement in knock resistance from the relatively high octane number of ethanol.
Methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME may also be used.
Wherever ethanol is used herein it is to be understood that other antiknock agents are contemplated.
The fuel management system uses a fuel management control system that may use a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the antiknock agent. To conserve the ethanol, it is preferred that it be added only during portions of a drive cycle requiring knock resistance and that its use be minimized during these times. Alternatively, the gasoline engine may include a knock sensor that provides a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor system to minimize the amount of the ethanol added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
It is known that the efficiency of spark ignition (SI) gasoline engines can be increased by high compression ratio operation and particularly by engine downsizing.
The engine downsizing is made possible by the use of substantial pressure boosting from either turbocharging or supercharging. Such pressure boosting makes it possible to obtain the same performance in a significantly smaller engine. See, J. Stokes, et al., "A
Gasoline Engine Concept For Improved Fuel Economy - The Lean-Boost System,"
SAE
Paper 2001-01-2902. The use of these techniques to increase engine efficiency, however, is limited by the onset of engine knock. Knock is the undesired detonation of fuel and can severely damage an engine. If knock can be prevented, then high compression ratio operation and high pressure boosting can be used to increase engine efficiency by up to twenty-five percent.
Octane number represents the resistance of a fuel to knocking but the use of higher octane gasoline only modestly alleviates the tendency to knock. For example, the difference between regular and premium gasoline is typically six octane numbers. That is significantly less than is needed to realize fully the efficiency benefits of high compression ratio or turbocharged operation. There is thus a need for a practical means for achieving a much higher level of octane enhancement so that engines can be operated much more efficiently.
It is known to replace a portion of gasoline with small amounts of ethanol added at the refinery. Ethanol has a blending octane number (ON) of 110 (versus 95 for premium gasoline) (see J.B. Heywood, "Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals,"
McGraw Hill, 1988, p. 477) and is also attractive because it is a renewable energy, biomass-derived fuel, but the small amounts of ethanol that have heretofore been added to gasoline have had a relatively small impact on engine performance. Ethanol is much more expensive than gasoline and the amount of ethanol that is readily available is much smaller than that of gasoline because of the relatively limited amount of biomass that is available for its production. An object of the present invention is to minimize the amount of ethanol or other antiknock agent that is used to achieve a given level of engine efficiency increase. By restricting the use of ethanol to the relatively small fraction of time in an operating cycle when it is needed to prevent knock in a higher load regime and by minimizing its use at these times, the amount of ethanol that is required can be limited to a relatively small fraction of the fuel used by the spark ignition gasoline engine.
Summary of the Invention In one aspect, the invention is a fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine including a source of an antiknock agent such as ethanol. An injector directly injects the ethanol into a cylinder of the engine and a fuel management system controls injection of the antiknock agent into the cylinder to control knock with minimum use of the antiknock agent. A preferred antiknock agent is ethanol.
Ethanol has a high heat of vaporization so that there is substantial cooling of the air-fuel charge to the cylinder when it is injected directly into the engine. This cooling effect reduces the octane requirement of the engine by a considerable amount in addition to the improvement in knock resistance from the relatively high octane number of ethanol.
Methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME may also be used.
Wherever ethanol is used herein it is to be understood that other antiknock agents are contemplated.
The fuel management system uses a fuel management control system that may use a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the antiknock agent. To conserve the ethanol, it is preferred that it be added only during portions of a drive cycle requiring knock resistance and that its use be minimized during these times. Alternatively, the gasoline engine may include a knock sensor that provides a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor system to minimize the amount of the ethanol added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
In one embodiment the injectors stratify the ethanol to provide non-uniform deposition within a cylinder. For example, the ethanol may be injected proximate to the cylinder walls and swirl can create a ring of ethanol near the walls.
In another embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the system includes a measure of the amount of the antiknock agent such as ethanol in the source containing the antiknock agent to control turbocharging, supercharging or spark retard when the amount of ethanol is low.
The direct injection of ethanol provides substantially a 13 C drop in temperature for every ten percent of fuel energy provided by ethanol. An instantaneous octane enhancement of at least 4 octane numbers may be obtained for every 20 percent of the engine's energy coming from the ethanol.
Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention disclosed herein.
Fig. 2 is a graph of the drop in temperature within a cylinder as a function of the fraction of energy provided by ethanol.
Fig. 3 is a schematic illustration of the stratification of cooler ethanol charge using direct injection and swirl motion for achieving thermal stratification.
Fig. 4 is a schematic illustration showing ethanol stratified in an inlet manifold.
Fig. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention in which the fuel management microprocessor is used to control a turbocharger and spark retard based upon the amount of ethanol in a fuel tank.
Description of the Preferred Embodiment With reference first to Fig. 1, a spark ignition gasoline engine 10 includes a knock sensor 12 and a fuel management microprocessor system 14. The fuel management microprocessor system 14 controls the direct injection of an antiknock agent such as ethanol from an ethanol tank 16. The fuel management microprocessor system 14 also controls the delivery of gasoline from a gasoline tank 18 into engine manifold 20. A turbocharger 22 is provided to improve the torque and power density of the engine 10. The amount of ethanol injection is dictated either by a predetermined correlation between octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel that is provided by ethanol in an open loop system or by a closed loop control system that uses a signal from the knock sensor 12 as an input to the fuel management microprocessor 14. In both situations, the fuel management processor 14 will minimize the amount of ethanol added to a cylinder while still preventing knock. It is also contemplated that the fuel management microprocessor system 14 could provide a combination of open and closed loop control.
As show in Fig. 1 it is preferred that ethanol be directly injected into the engine 10. Direct injection substantially increases the benefits of ethanol addition and decreases the required amount of ethanol. Recent advances in fuel injector and electronic control technology allows fuel injection directly into a spark ignition engine rather than into the manifold 20. Because ethanol has a high heat of vaporization there will be substantial cooling when it is directly injected into the engine 10. This cooling effect further increases knock resistance by a considerable amount. In the embodiment of Fig.1 port fuel injection of the gasoline in which the gasoline is injected into the manifold rather than directly injected into the cylinder is preferred because it is advantageous in obtaining good air/fuel mixing and combustion stability that are difficult to obtain with direct injection.
Ethanol has a heat of vaporization of 840kJ/kg, while the heat of vaporization of gasoline is about 350kJ/kg. The attractiveness of ethanol increases when compared with gasoline on an energy basis, since the lower heating value of ethanol is 26.9MJ/kg while for gasoline it is about 44MJ/kg. Thus, the heat of vaporization per Joule of coinbustion energy is 0.031 for ethanol and 0.008 for gasoline. That is, for equal amounts of energy the required heat of vaporization of ethanol is about four times higher than that of gasoline. The ratio of the heat of vaporization per unit air required for stoichiometric combustion is about 94 kJ/kg of air for ethanol and 24 kJ/kg of air for gasoline, or a factor of four smaller. Thus, the net effect of cooling the air charge is about four times lower for gasoline than for ethanol (for stoichiometric mixtures wherein the amount of air contains oxygen that is just sufficient to combust all of the fuel).
In the case of ethanol direct injection according to one aspect of the invention, the charge is directly cooled. The amount of cooling due to direct injection of etlianol is shown in Fig. 2. It is assumed that the air/fuel mixture is stoichiometric without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and that gasoline makes up the rest of the fuel. It is further assumed that only the ethanol contributes to charge cooling. Gasoline is vaporized in the inlet manifold and does not contribute to cylinder charge cooling. The direct ethanol injection provides about 13 C of cooling for each 10% of the fuel energy provided by ethanol. It is also possible to use direct injection of gasoline as well as direct injection of ethanol. However, under certain conditions there can be combustion stability issues.
The temperature decrement because of the vaporization energy of the ethanol decreases with lean operation and with EGR, as the thermal capacity of the cylinder charge increases. If the engine operates at twice the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio, the numbers indicated in Fig. 2 decrease by about a factor of 2 (the contribution of the ethanol itself and the gasoline is relatively modest). Similarly, for a 20%
EGR rate, the cooling effect of the ethanol decreases by about 25%.
The octane enhancement effect can be estimated from the data in Fig. 2. Direct injection of gasoline results in approximately a five octane number decrease in the octane number required by the engine, as discussed by Stokes, et al. Thus the contribution is about five octane numbers per 30K drop in charge temperature. As ethanol can decrease the charge temperature by about 120K, then the decrease in octane number required by the engine due to the drop in temperature, for 100% ethanol, is twenty octane numbers.
Thus, when 100% of the fuel is provided by ethanol, the octane number enhancement is approximately thirty-five octane nuinbers with a twenty octane number enhancement coming from direct injection cooling and a fifteen octane number enhancement coming from the octane number of ethanol. From the above considerations, it can be projected that even if the octane enhancement from direct cooling is significantly lower, a total octane number enhancement of at least 4 octane numbers should be achievable for every 20% of the total fuel energy that is provided by ethanol.
Alternatively the ethanol and gasoline can be mixed together and then port injected through a single injector per cylinder, thereby decreasing the number of injectors that would be used. However, the air charge cooling benefit from ethanol would be lost.
In another embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the system includes a measure of the amount of the antiknock agent such as ethanol in the source containing the antiknock agent to control turbocharging, supercharging or spark retard when the amount of ethanol is low.
The direct injection of ethanol provides substantially a 13 C drop in temperature for every ten percent of fuel energy provided by ethanol. An instantaneous octane enhancement of at least 4 octane numbers may be obtained for every 20 percent of the engine's energy coming from the ethanol.
Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention disclosed herein.
Fig. 2 is a graph of the drop in temperature within a cylinder as a function of the fraction of energy provided by ethanol.
Fig. 3 is a schematic illustration of the stratification of cooler ethanol charge using direct injection and swirl motion for achieving thermal stratification.
Fig. 4 is a schematic illustration showing ethanol stratified in an inlet manifold.
Fig. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention in which the fuel management microprocessor is used to control a turbocharger and spark retard based upon the amount of ethanol in a fuel tank.
Description of the Preferred Embodiment With reference first to Fig. 1, a spark ignition gasoline engine 10 includes a knock sensor 12 and a fuel management microprocessor system 14. The fuel management microprocessor system 14 controls the direct injection of an antiknock agent such as ethanol from an ethanol tank 16. The fuel management microprocessor system 14 also controls the delivery of gasoline from a gasoline tank 18 into engine manifold 20. A turbocharger 22 is provided to improve the torque and power density of the engine 10. The amount of ethanol injection is dictated either by a predetermined correlation between octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel that is provided by ethanol in an open loop system or by a closed loop control system that uses a signal from the knock sensor 12 as an input to the fuel management microprocessor 14. In both situations, the fuel management processor 14 will minimize the amount of ethanol added to a cylinder while still preventing knock. It is also contemplated that the fuel management microprocessor system 14 could provide a combination of open and closed loop control.
As show in Fig. 1 it is preferred that ethanol be directly injected into the engine 10. Direct injection substantially increases the benefits of ethanol addition and decreases the required amount of ethanol. Recent advances in fuel injector and electronic control technology allows fuel injection directly into a spark ignition engine rather than into the manifold 20. Because ethanol has a high heat of vaporization there will be substantial cooling when it is directly injected into the engine 10. This cooling effect further increases knock resistance by a considerable amount. In the embodiment of Fig.1 port fuel injection of the gasoline in which the gasoline is injected into the manifold rather than directly injected into the cylinder is preferred because it is advantageous in obtaining good air/fuel mixing and combustion stability that are difficult to obtain with direct injection.
Ethanol has a heat of vaporization of 840kJ/kg, while the heat of vaporization of gasoline is about 350kJ/kg. The attractiveness of ethanol increases when compared with gasoline on an energy basis, since the lower heating value of ethanol is 26.9MJ/kg while for gasoline it is about 44MJ/kg. Thus, the heat of vaporization per Joule of coinbustion energy is 0.031 for ethanol and 0.008 for gasoline. That is, for equal amounts of energy the required heat of vaporization of ethanol is about four times higher than that of gasoline. The ratio of the heat of vaporization per unit air required for stoichiometric combustion is about 94 kJ/kg of air for ethanol and 24 kJ/kg of air for gasoline, or a factor of four smaller. Thus, the net effect of cooling the air charge is about four times lower for gasoline than for ethanol (for stoichiometric mixtures wherein the amount of air contains oxygen that is just sufficient to combust all of the fuel).
In the case of ethanol direct injection according to one aspect of the invention, the charge is directly cooled. The amount of cooling due to direct injection of etlianol is shown in Fig. 2. It is assumed that the air/fuel mixture is stoichiometric without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and that gasoline makes up the rest of the fuel. It is further assumed that only the ethanol contributes to charge cooling. Gasoline is vaporized in the inlet manifold and does not contribute to cylinder charge cooling. The direct ethanol injection provides about 13 C of cooling for each 10% of the fuel energy provided by ethanol. It is also possible to use direct injection of gasoline as well as direct injection of ethanol. However, under certain conditions there can be combustion stability issues.
The temperature decrement because of the vaporization energy of the ethanol decreases with lean operation and with EGR, as the thermal capacity of the cylinder charge increases. If the engine operates at twice the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio, the numbers indicated in Fig. 2 decrease by about a factor of 2 (the contribution of the ethanol itself and the gasoline is relatively modest). Similarly, for a 20%
EGR rate, the cooling effect of the ethanol decreases by about 25%.
The octane enhancement effect can be estimated from the data in Fig. 2. Direct injection of gasoline results in approximately a five octane number decrease in the octane number required by the engine, as discussed by Stokes, et al. Thus the contribution is about five octane numbers per 30K drop in charge temperature. As ethanol can decrease the charge temperature by about 120K, then the decrease in octane number required by the engine due to the drop in temperature, for 100% ethanol, is twenty octane numbers.
Thus, when 100% of the fuel is provided by ethanol, the octane number enhancement is approximately thirty-five octane nuinbers with a twenty octane number enhancement coming from direct injection cooling and a fifteen octane number enhancement coming from the octane number of ethanol. From the above considerations, it can be projected that even if the octane enhancement from direct cooling is significantly lower, a total octane number enhancement of at least 4 octane numbers should be achievable for every 20% of the total fuel energy that is provided by ethanol.
Alternatively the ethanol and gasoline can be mixed together and then port injected through a single injector per cylinder, thereby decreasing the number of injectors that would be used. However, the air charge cooling benefit from ethanol would be lost.
Alternatively the ethanol and gasoline can be mixed together and then port fuel injected using a single injector per cylinder, thereby decreasing the number of injectors that would be used. However, the substantial air charge cooling benefit from ethanol would be lost. The volume of fuel between the mixing point and the port fuel injector should be minimized in order to meet the demanding dynamic octane-enhancement requirements of the engine.
Relatively precise determinations of the actual amount of octane enhancement from given amounts of direct ethanol injection can be obtained from laboratory and ' vehicle tests in addition to detailed calculations. These correlations can be used by the fuel management microprocessor system 14.
An additional benefit of using ethanol for octane enhancement is the ability to use it in a mixture with water. Such a mixture can eliminate the need for the costly and energy consuming water removal step in producing pure ethanol that must be employed when ethanol is added to gasoline at a refinery. Moreover, the water provides an additional cooling (due to vaporization) that further increases engine knock resistance.
In contrast the present use of ethanol as an additive to gasoline at the refinery requires that the water be removed from the ethanol.
Since unlike gasoline, ethanol is not a good lubricant and the ethanol fuel injector can stick and not open, it is desirable to add a lubricant to the ethanol. The lubricant will also denature the ethanol and make it unattractive for human consumption.
Further decreases in the required ethanol for a given amount of octane enhancement can be achieved with stratification (non-uniform deposition) of the ethanol addition. Direct injection can be used to place the ethanol near the walls of the cylinder where the need for knock reduction is greatest. The direct injection may be used in combination with swirl. This stratification of the ethanol in the engine further reduces the amount of ethanol needed to obtain a given amount of octane enhancement.
Because only the ethanol is directly injected and because it is stratified both by the injection process and by thermal centrifugation, the ignition stability issues associated with gasoline direct injection (GDI) can be avoided.
Relatively precise determinations of the actual amount of octane enhancement from given amounts of direct ethanol injection can be obtained from laboratory and ' vehicle tests in addition to detailed calculations. These correlations can be used by the fuel management microprocessor system 14.
An additional benefit of using ethanol for octane enhancement is the ability to use it in a mixture with water. Such a mixture can eliminate the need for the costly and energy consuming water removal step in producing pure ethanol that must be employed when ethanol is added to gasoline at a refinery. Moreover, the water provides an additional cooling (due to vaporization) that further increases engine knock resistance.
In contrast the present use of ethanol as an additive to gasoline at the refinery requires that the water be removed from the ethanol.
Since unlike gasoline, ethanol is not a good lubricant and the ethanol fuel injector can stick and not open, it is desirable to add a lubricant to the ethanol. The lubricant will also denature the ethanol and make it unattractive for human consumption.
Further decreases in the required ethanol for a given amount of octane enhancement can be achieved with stratification (non-uniform deposition) of the ethanol addition. Direct injection can be used to place the ethanol near the walls of the cylinder where the need for knock reduction is greatest. The direct injection may be used in combination with swirl. This stratification of the ethanol in the engine further reduces the amount of ethanol needed to obtain a given amount of octane enhancement.
Because only the ethanol is directly injected and because it is stratified both by the injection process and by thermal centrifugation, the ignition stability issues associated with gasoline direct injection (GDI) can be avoided.
It is preferred that ethanol be added to those regions that make up the end-gas and are prone to auto-ignition. These regions are near the walls of the cylinder.
Since the end-gas contains on the order of 25% of the fuel, substantial decrements in the required amounts of ethanol can be achieved by stratifying the ethanol.
In the case of the engine 10 having substantial organized motion (such as swirl), the cooling will result in forces that thermally stratify the discharge (centrifugal separation of the regions at different density due to different temperatures).
The effect of ethanol addition is to increase gas density since the temperature is decreased. With swirl the ethanol mixture will automatically move to the zone where the end-gas is, and thus increase the anti-knock effectiveness of the injected ethanol. The swirl motion is not affected much by the compression stroke and thus survives better than tumble-like motion that drives turbulence towards top-dead-center (TDC) and then dissipates. It should be pointed out that relatively modest swirls result in large separating (centrifugal) forces. A 3m/s swirl motion in a 5cm radius cylinder generates accelerations of about 200m/s2, or about 20g's.
Fig. 3 illustrates ethanol direct injection and swirl motion for achieving thermal stratification. Ethanol is predominantly on an outside region which is the end-gas region.
Fig. 4 illustrates a possible stratification of the ethanol in an inlet manifold with swirl motion and thermal centrifugation maintaining stratification in the cylinder.
In this case of port injection of ethanol, however, the advantage of substantial charge cooling may be lost.
With reference again to Fig. 2, the effect of ethanol addition all the way up to 100% ethanol injection is shown. At the point that the engine is 100% direct ethanol injected, there may be issues of engine stability when operating with only stratified ethanol injection that need to be addressed. In the case of stratified operation it may also be advantageous to stratify the injection of gasoline in order to provide a relatively uniform equivalence ratio across the cylinder (and therefore lower concentrations of gasoline in the regions where the ethanol is injected). This situation can be achieved, as indicated in Fig. 4, by placing fuel in the region of the inlet manifold that is void of ethanol.
Since the end-gas contains on the order of 25% of the fuel, substantial decrements in the required amounts of ethanol can be achieved by stratifying the ethanol.
In the case of the engine 10 having substantial organized motion (such as swirl), the cooling will result in forces that thermally stratify the discharge (centrifugal separation of the regions at different density due to different temperatures).
The effect of ethanol addition is to increase gas density since the temperature is decreased. With swirl the ethanol mixture will automatically move to the zone where the end-gas is, and thus increase the anti-knock effectiveness of the injected ethanol. The swirl motion is not affected much by the compression stroke and thus survives better than tumble-like motion that drives turbulence towards top-dead-center (TDC) and then dissipates. It should be pointed out that relatively modest swirls result in large separating (centrifugal) forces. A 3m/s swirl motion in a 5cm radius cylinder generates accelerations of about 200m/s2, or about 20g's.
Fig. 3 illustrates ethanol direct injection and swirl motion for achieving thermal stratification. Ethanol is predominantly on an outside region which is the end-gas region.
Fig. 4 illustrates a possible stratification of the ethanol in an inlet manifold with swirl motion and thermal centrifugation maintaining stratification in the cylinder.
In this case of port injection of ethanol, however, the advantage of substantial charge cooling may be lost.
With reference again to Fig. 2, the effect of ethanol addition all the way up to 100% ethanol injection is shown. At the point that the engine is 100% direct ethanol injected, there may be issues of engine stability when operating with only stratified ethanol injection that need to be addressed. In the case of stratified operation it may also be advantageous to stratify the injection of gasoline in order to provide a relatively uniform equivalence ratio across the cylinder (and therefore lower concentrations of gasoline in the regions where the ethanol is injected). This situation can be achieved, as indicated in Fig. 4, by placing fuel in the region of the inlet manifold that is void of ethanol.
The ethanol used in the invention can either be contained in a separate tank from the gasoline or may be separated from a gasoline/ethanol mixture stored in one tank.
The instantaneous ethanol injection requirement and total ethanol consumption over a drive cycle can be estimated from information about the drive cycle and the increase in torque (and thus increase in compression ratio, engine power density, and capability for downsizing) that is desired. A plot of the amount of operating time spent at various values of torque and engine speed in FTP and US06 drive cycles can be used.
It is necessary to enhance the octane number at each point in the drive cycle where the torque is greater than permitted for knock free operation with gasoline alone.
The amount of octane enhancement that is required is determined by the torque level.
A rough illustrative calculation shows that only a small amount of ethanol might be needed over the drive cycle. Assume that it is desired to increase the maximum torque level by a factor of two relative to what is possible without direct injection ethanol octane enhancement. Information about the operating time for the combined FTP
and US06 cycles shows that approximately only 10 percent of the time is spent at torque levels above 0.5 maximum torque and less than 1 percent of the time is spent above 0.9 maximum torque. Conservatively assuming that 100 % ethanol addition is needed at maximum torque and that the energy fraction of ethanol addition that is required to prevent knock decreases linearly to zero at 50 percent of maximum torque, the energy fraction provided by ethanol is about 30 percent. During a drive cycle about 20 percent of the total fuel energy is consumed at greater than 50 percent of maximum torque since during the 10 percent of the time that the engine is operated in this regime, the amount of fuel consumed is about twice that which is consumed below 50 percent of maximum torque. The amount of ethanol energy consumed during the drive cycle is thus roughly around 6 percent (30 percent x 0.2) of the total fuel energy.
In this case then, although 100% ethanol addition was needed at the highest value of torque, only 6% addition was needed averaged over the drive cycle. The ethanol is much more effectively used by varying the level of addition according to the needs of the drive cycle.
The instantaneous ethanol injection requirement and total ethanol consumption over a drive cycle can be estimated from information about the drive cycle and the increase in torque (and thus increase in compression ratio, engine power density, and capability for downsizing) that is desired. A plot of the amount of operating time spent at various values of torque and engine speed in FTP and US06 drive cycles can be used.
It is necessary to enhance the octane number at each point in the drive cycle where the torque is greater than permitted for knock free operation with gasoline alone.
The amount of octane enhancement that is required is determined by the torque level.
A rough illustrative calculation shows that only a small amount of ethanol might be needed over the drive cycle. Assume that it is desired to increase the maximum torque level by a factor of two relative to what is possible without direct injection ethanol octane enhancement. Information about the operating time for the combined FTP
and US06 cycles shows that approximately only 10 percent of the time is spent at torque levels above 0.5 maximum torque and less than 1 percent of the time is spent above 0.9 maximum torque. Conservatively assuming that 100 % ethanol addition is needed at maximum torque and that the energy fraction of ethanol addition that is required to prevent knock decreases linearly to zero at 50 percent of maximum torque, the energy fraction provided by ethanol is about 30 percent. During a drive cycle about 20 percent of the total fuel energy is consumed at greater than 50 percent of maximum torque since during the 10 percent of the time that the engine is operated in this regime, the amount of fuel consumed is about twice that which is consumed below 50 percent of maximum torque. The amount of ethanol energy consumed during the drive cycle is thus roughly around 6 percent (30 percent x 0.2) of the total fuel energy.
In this case then, although 100% ethanol addition was needed at the highest value of torque, only 6% addition was needed averaged over the drive cycle. The ethanol is much more effectively used by varying the level of addition according to the needs of the drive cycle.
Because of the lower heat of combustion of ethanol, the required amount of ethanol would be about 9% of the weight of the gasoline fuel or about 9% of the volume (since the densities of ethanol and gasoline are comparable). A separate tank with a capacity of about 1.8 gallons would then be required in automobiles with twenty gallon gasoline tanks. The stored ethanol content would be about 9% of that of gasoline by weight, a number not too different from present-day reformulated gasoline.
Stratification of the ethanol addition could reduce this amount by more than a factor of two. An on-line ethanol distillation system might alternatively be employed but would entail elimination or reduction of the increase torque and power available from turbocharging.
Because of the relatively small amount of ethanol and present lack of an ethanol fueling infrastructure, it is important that the etlianol vehicle be operable if there is no ethanol on the vehicle. The engine system can be designed such that although the torque and power benefits would be lower when ethanol is not available, the vehicle could still be operable by reducing or eliminating turbocharging capability and/or by increasing spark retard so as to avoid knock. As shown in Fig. 5, the fuel management microprocessor system 14 uses ethanol fuel level in the ethanol tank 16 as an input to control the turbocharger 22 (or supercharger or spark retard, not shown). As an example, with on-demand ethanol octane enhancement, a 4-cylinder engine can produce in the range of 280 horsepower with appropriate turbocharging or supercharging but could also be drivable with an engine power of 140 horsepower without the use of ethanol according to the invention.
The impact of a small amount of ethanol upon fuel efficiency through use in a higher efficiency engine can greatly increase the energy value of the ethanol.
For example, gasoline consumption could be reduced by 20% due to higher efficiency engine operation from use of a high compression ratio, strongly turbocharged operation and substantial engine downsizing. The energy value of the ethanol, including its value in direct replacement of gasoline (5% of the energy of the gasoline), is thus roughly equal to 25% of the gasoline that would have been used in a less efficient engine without any ethanol. The 5% gasoline equivalent energy value of ethanol has thus been leveraged up to a 25% gasoline equivalent value. Thus, ethanol can cost roughly up to five times that of gasoline on an energy basis and still be economically attractive. The use of ethanol as disclosed herein can be a much greater value use than in other ethanol applications.
Although the above discussion has featured ethanol as an exemplary anti-knock agent, the same approach can be applied to other high octane fuel and fuel additives with high vaporization energies such as methanol (with higher vaporization energy per unit fuel), and other anti-knock agents such as tertiary butyl alcohol, or ethers such as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE), or tertiary amyl methyl ether (TAME).
It is recognized that modifications and variations of the invention disclosed herein will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and it is intended that all such modifications and variations be included within the scope of the appended claims.
What is claimed is:
Stratification of the ethanol addition could reduce this amount by more than a factor of two. An on-line ethanol distillation system might alternatively be employed but would entail elimination or reduction of the increase torque and power available from turbocharging.
Because of the relatively small amount of ethanol and present lack of an ethanol fueling infrastructure, it is important that the etlianol vehicle be operable if there is no ethanol on the vehicle. The engine system can be designed such that although the torque and power benefits would be lower when ethanol is not available, the vehicle could still be operable by reducing or eliminating turbocharging capability and/or by increasing spark retard so as to avoid knock. As shown in Fig. 5, the fuel management microprocessor system 14 uses ethanol fuel level in the ethanol tank 16 as an input to control the turbocharger 22 (or supercharger or spark retard, not shown). As an example, with on-demand ethanol octane enhancement, a 4-cylinder engine can produce in the range of 280 horsepower with appropriate turbocharging or supercharging but could also be drivable with an engine power of 140 horsepower without the use of ethanol according to the invention.
The impact of a small amount of ethanol upon fuel efficiency through use in a higher efficiency engine can greatly increase the energy value of the ethanol.
For example, gasoline consumption could be reduced by 20% due to higher efficiency engine operation from use of a high compression ratio, strongly turbocharged operation and substantial engine downsizing. The energy value of the ethanol, including its value in direct replacement of gasoline (5% of the energy of the gasoline), is thus roughly equal to 25% of the gasoline that would have been used in a less efficient engine without any ethanol. The 5% gasoline equivalent energy value of ethanol has thus been leveraged up to a 25% gasoline equivalent value. Thus, ethanol can cost roughly up to five times that of gasoline on an energy basis and still be economically attractive. The use of ethanol as disclosed herein can be a much greater value use than in other ethanol applications.
Although the above discussion has featured ethanol as an exemplary anti-knock agent, the same approach can be applied to other high octane fuel and fuel additives with high vaporization energies such as methanol (with higher vaporization energy per unit fuel), and other anti-knock agents such as tertiary butyl alcohol, or ethers such as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE), or tertiary amyl methyl ether (TAME).
It is recognized that modifications and variations of the invention disclosed herein will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and it is intended that all such modifications and variations be included within the scope of the appended claims.
What is claimed is:
Claims (22)
1. Fuel management system for operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder to control knock.
1. The system of claim 1 wherein the injectors deposit the anti-knock agent to provide non-uniform deposition within a cylinder.
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder to control knock.
1. The system of claim 1 wherein the injectors deposit the anti-knock agent to provide non-uniform deposition within a cylinder.
2. The system of claim 2 wherein the anti-knock agent is deposited near the walls of the cylinder.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the non-uniform deposition is obtained through direct injection and charge swirl.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the anti-knock agent is selected from the group consisting of ethanol, methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE and TAME.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the fuel management system includes a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between required octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the anti-knock agent.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the gasoline engine includes a knock sensor providing a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor to minimize the amount of the anti-knock agent added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the anti-knock agent is ethanol.
8. The system of claim 8 wherein the ethanol is mixed with water.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the ethanol is mixed with a lubricant.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein the engine has substantial organized motion such as swirl.
11. The system of claim 1 wherein the system includes a measure of the amount of anti-knock agent in the source to control turbocharging, supercharging or spark retard when the amount of anti-knock agent is low.
12. The system of claim 1 wherein the anti-knock agent is added only during portions of a drive cycle requiring knock resistance.
13. The system of claim 1 wherein gasoline is port injected into the engine.
14. The system of claim 1 wherein the gasoline is directly injected into the cylinder.
15. The system of claim 8 wherein the direct injection of ethanol provides substantially a 13°C drop in temperature for every 10% of fuel energy provided by the ethanol.
16. The system of claim 1 wlierein the fuel management system substantially minimizes the amount of anti-knock agent used over a drive cycle.
17. The system of claim 8 wherein an octane enhancement of at least 4 octane numbers is obtained when 20% of the fuel energy in a cylinder comes from ethanol.
18. The system of claim 1 wherein turbocharging or supercharging are reduced or eliminated and/or spark retard is increased when the anti-knock agent is not available.
19. The system of claim 8 wherein ethanol is injected proximate to a cylinder wall and swirl creates a ring of ethanol.
20. The system of claim 8 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio.
21. The system of claim 8 wherein the ethanol is added only during portions of the drive cycle requiring knock resistance and its use is minimized during those times.
22. The system of claim 8 wherein the ethanol is separated from a gasoline/ethanol mixture.
24. The system of claim 8 wherein torque of the engine at which knock occurs can be increased by at least a factor of two by the direct injection of ethanol.
25. The system of claim 8 wherein horsepower of a given size engine can be at least doubled by using ethanol octane enhancement.
26. The system of claim 8 wherein gasoline consumption is reduced by at least 20%
due to higher efficiency engine operation.
27. Fuel management system for operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of ethanol;
an injector for direct injection of the ethanol into a cylinder of the engine;
and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the ethanol into the cylinder when engine torque is above a selected fraction of maximum torque.
28. The system of claim 27 wherein torque levels at which the ethanol is directly injected are those where knock would occur absent the ethanol injection.
29. The system of claim 27 wherein the fraction of total fuel provided by the directly injected ethanol increases with increasing torque.
30. The system of claim 27 wherein gasoline is port fuel injected.
31. The system of claim 27 wherein up to and including substantially 100% of the fuel can be provided by the ethanol.
32. The system of claim 27 wherein octane number is enhanced with increasing torque.
33. The system of claim 27 wherein an octane enhancement of more than 20 octane numbers is achieved.
34. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management system includes a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between the required octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the ethanol.
35. The system of claim 27 wherein the gasoline engine includes a knock sensor providing a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor to minimize the amount of the ethanol added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
36. The system of claim 27 wherein the injector provides non-uniform deposition of the ethanol within a cylinder.
37. The system of claim 36 wherein the ethanol is deposited near the walls of the cylinder.
38. The system of claim 36 wherein the non-uniform deposition is obtained through direct injection and charge swirl.
39. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is mixed with water.
40. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is mixed with a lubricant.
41. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine has substantial organized motion such as swirl.
42. The system of claim 27 wherein the system includes a measure of the amount of ethanol available to control turbocharging, supercharging or spark retard when the amount of ethanol is low.
43. The system of claim 27 wherein the gasoline is directly injected into the cylinder.
44. The system of claim 27 wherein the direct injection of ethanol provides substantially a 13°C drop in temperature for every 10% of the fuel energy provided by the ethanol.
45. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management system substantially minimizes the amount of ethanol used over a drive cycle.
46. The system of claim 27 wherein an octane enhancement of at least four octane numbers is obtained when 20% of the fuel energy in a cylinder comes from ethanol.
47. The system of claim 27 wherein turbocharging or supercharging are reduced or eliminated and/or spark retard is increased when ethanol is not available.
48. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric fuel/air ratio.
49. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is separated from a gasoline/ethanol mixture.
50. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine can be operated with only gasoline and knock can be avoided by reducing the maximum torque and horsepower relative to values when ethanol is directly injected into the cylinder.
51. The system of claim 50 wherein the horsepower is reduced by at least a factor of two.
52. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management microprocessor control system uses ethanol level in the ethanol tank as an input to control a turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard.
53. The system of claim 55 wherein the turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard is adjusted to prevent knock.
54. Fuel management system for operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder to control knock; wherein the anti-knock agent is selected from the group consisting of methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME.
55. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with water.
56. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with a lubricant.
57. The system of claim 24 wherein the anti-knock agent is injected proximate to a cylinder wall and swirl creates a ring of the anti-knock agent.
58. The system of claim 54 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio.
59. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is added only during portions of the drive cycle requiring knock resistance and its use is minimized during those times.
60. The system of claim 54 wherein the torque of the engine at which knock occurs can be increased by at least a factor of two by the direct injection of the anti-knock agent.
61. The system of claim 54 wherein horsepower of a given size engine can be at least doubled by using anti-knock agent octane enhancement.
62. Fuel management system for operation of a spark engine gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder when engine torque is above a selected fraction of maximum torque.
63. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is selected from the group consisting of methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME.
64. The system of claim 62 wherein the torque levels at which the anti-knock agent is directly injected are those where knock would occur absent the anti-knock agent injection.
65. The system of claim 62 wherein the fraction of total fuel provided by the directly injected anti-knock agent increases with increasing torque.
66. The system of claim 62 wherein gasoline is port fuel injected.
67. The system of claim 62 wherein octane number is enhanced with increasing torque.
68. The system of claim 62 wherein an octane enhancement of more than 20 octane number is achieved.
69. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management system includes a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between a required octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the anti-knock agent.
70. The system of claim 62 wherein the gasoline engine includes a knock sensor providing a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor to minimize the amount of the anti-knock agent added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
71. The system of claim 62 wherein the injector provides non-uniform deposition of the anti-knock agent within a cylinder.
72. The system of claim 71 wherein the anti-knock agent is deposited near the walls of the cylinder.
73. The system of claim 71 wherein the non-uniform deposition is obtained through direct injection and charge swirl.
74. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with water.
75. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with a lubricant.
76. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine has substantial organized motion such as swirl.
77. The system of claim 62 wherein the system includes a measure of the amount of the anti-knock agent available to control turbocharging, supercharging, or spark retard when the amount of anti-knock agent is low.
78. The system of claim 62 wherein the gasoline is directly injected into the cylinder.
79. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management system substantially minimizes the amount of anti-knock agent used over a drive cycle.
80. The system of claim 62 wherein turbocharging or supercharging are reduced or eliminated and/or spark retard is increased when anti-knock agent is not available.
81. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric fuel/air ratio.
82. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine can be operated with only gasoline and knock can be avoided by reducing the maximum torque and horsepower relative to values when the anti-knock agent is directly injected into the cylinder.
83. The system of claim 82 wherein the horsepower is reduced by at least a factor of two.
84. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management control system uses anti-knock agent level in the ethanol tank as an input to control a turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard.
85. The system of claim 84 wherein the turbocharger, supercharger, or spark retard is adjusted to prevent knock.
24. The system of claim 8 wherein torque of the engine at which knock occurs can be increased by at least a factor of two by the direct injection of ethanol.
25. The system of claim 8 wherein horsepower of a given size engine can be at least doubled by using ethanol octane enhancement.
26. The system of claim 8 wherein gasoline consumption is reduced by at least 20%
due to higher efficiency engine operation.
27. Fuel management system for operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of ethanol;
an injector for direct injection of the ethanol into a cylinder of the engine;
and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the ethanol into the cylinder when engine torque is above a selected fraction of maximum torque.
28. The system of claim 27 wherein torque levels at which the ethanol is directly injected are those where knock would occur absent the ethanol injection.
29. The system of claim 27 wherein the fraction of total fuel provided by the directly injected ethanol increases with increasing torque.
30. The system of claim 27 wherein gasoline is port fuel injected.
31. The system of claim 27 wherein up to and including substantially 100% of the fuel can be provided by the ethanol.
32. The system of claim 27 wherein octane number is enhanced with increasing torque.
33. The system of claim 27 wherein an octane enhancement of more than 20 octane numbers is achieved.
34. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management system includes a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between the required octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the ethanol.
35. The system of claim 27 wherein the gasoline engine includes a knock sensor providing a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor to minimize the amount of the ethanol added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
36. The system of claim 27 wherein the injector provides non-uniform deposition of the ethanol within a cylinder.
37. The system of claim 36 wherein the ethanol is deposited near the walls of the cylinder.
38. The system of claim 36 wherein the non-uniform deposition is obtained through direct injection and charge swirl.
39. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is mixed with water.
40. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is mixed with a lubricant.
41. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine has substantial organized motion such as swirl.
42. The system of claim 27 wherein the system includes a measure of the amount of ethanol available to control turbocharging, supercharging or spark retard when the amount of ethanol is low.
43. The system of claim 27 wherein the gasoline is directly injected into the cylinder.
44. The system of claim 27 wherein the direct injection of ethanol provides substantially a 13°C drop in temperature for every 10% of the fuel energy provided by the ethanol.
45. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management system substantially minimizes the amount of ethanol used over a drive cycle.
46. The system of claim 27 wherein an octane enhancement of at least four octane numbers is obtained when 20% of the fuel energy in a cylinder comes from ethanol.
47. The system of claim 27 wherein turbocharging or supercharging are reduced or eliminated and/or spark retard is increased when ethanol is not available.
48. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric fuel/air ratio.
49. The system of claim 27 wherein the ethanol is separated from a gasoline/ethanol mixture.
50. The system of claim 27 wherein the engine can be operated with only gasoline and knock can be avoided by reducing the maximum torque and horsepower relative to values when ethanol is directly injected into the cylinder.
51. The system of claim 50 wherein the horsepower is reduced by at least a factor of two.
52. The system of claim 27 wherein the fuel management microprocessor control system uses ethanol level in the ethanol tank as an input to control a turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard.
53. The system of claim 55 wherein the turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard is adjusted to prevent knock.
54. Fuel management system for operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder to control knock; wherein the anti-knock agent is selected from the group consisting of methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME.
55. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with water.
56. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with a lubricant.
57. The system of claim 24 wherein the anti-knock agent is injected proximate to a cylinder wall and swirl creates a ring of the anti-knock agent.
58. The system of claim 54 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio.
59. The system of claim 54 wherein the anti-knock agent is added only during portions of the drive cycle requiring knock resistance and its use is minimized during those times.
60. The system of claim 54 wherein the torque of the engine at which knock occurs can be increased by at least a factor of two by the direct injection of the anti-knock agent.
61. The system of claim 54 wherein horsepower of a given size engine can be at least doubled by using anti-knock agent octane enhancement.
62. Fuel management system for operation of a spark engine gasoline engine comprising:
a gasoline engine;
a source of an anti-knock agent;
an injector for direct injection of the anti-knock agent into a cylinder of the engine; and a fuel management control system for controlling injection of the anti-knock agent into the cylinder when engine torque is above a selected fraction of maximum torque.
63. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is selected from the group consisting of methanol, tertiary butyl alcohol, MTBE, ETBE, and TAME.
64. The system of claim 62 wherein the torque levels at which the anti-knock agent is directly injected are those where knock would occur absent the anti-knock agent injection.
65. The system of claim 62 wherein the fraction of total fuel provided by the directly injected anti-knock agent increases with increasing torque.
66. The system of claim 62 wherein gasoline is port fuel injected.
67. The system of claim 62 wherein octane number is enhanced with increasing torque.
68. The system of claim 62 wherein an octane enhancement of more than 20 octane number is achieved.
69. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management system includes a microprocessor that operates in an open loop fashion on a predetermined correlation between a required octane number enhancement and fraction of fuel provided by the anti-knock agent.
70. The system of claim 62 wherein the gasoline engine includes a knock sensor providing a feedback signal to a fuel management microprocessor to minimize the amount of the anti-knock agent added to prevent knock in a closed loop fashion.
71. The system of claim 62 wherein the injector provides non-uniform deposition of the anti-knock agent within a cylinder.
72. The system of claim 71 wherein the anti-knock agent is deposited near the walls of the cylinder.
73. The system of claim 71 wherein the non-uniform deposition is obtained through direct injection and charge swirl.
74. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with water.
75. The system of claim 62 wherein the anti-knock agent is mixed with a lubricant.
76. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine has substantial organized motion such as swirl.
77. The system of claim 62 wherein the system includes a measure of the amount of the anti-knock agent available to control turbocharging, supercharging, or spark retard when the amount of anti-knock agent is low.
78. The system of claim 62 wherein the gasoline is directly injected into the cylinder.
79. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management system substantially minimizes the amount of anti-knock agent used over a drive cycle.
80. The system of claim 62 wherein turbocharging or supercharging are reduced or eliminated and/or spark retard is increased when anti-knock agent is not available.
81. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine is operated with substantially a stoichiometric fuel/air ratio.
82. The system of claim 62 wherein the engine can be operated with only gasoline and knock can be avoided by reducing the maximum torque and horsepower relative to values when the anti-knock agent is directly injected into the cylinder.
83. The system of claim 82 wherein the horsepower is reduced by at least a factor of two.
84. The system of claim 62 wherein the fuel management control system uses anti-knock agent level in the ethanol tank as an input to control a turbocharger, supercharger or spark retard.
85. The system of claim 84 wherein the turbocharger, supercharger, or spark retard is adjusted to prevent knock.
Applications Claiming Priority (5)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US10/991,774 US7314033B2 (en) | 2004-11-18 | 2004-11-18 | Fuel management system for variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines |
US10/991,774 | 2004-11-18 | ||
US11/229,755 US7444987B2 (en) | 2004-11-18 | 2005-09-19 | Fuel management system for variable anti-knock agent octane enhancement of gasoline engines |
US11/229,755 | 2005-09-19 | ||
PCT/US2005/041317 WO2006055540A1 (en) | 2004-11-18 | 2005-11-14 | Variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
CA2588385A1 true CA2588385A1 (en) | 2006-05-26 |
Family
ID=36407471
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
CA002588385A Abandoned CA2588385A1 (en) | 2004-11-18 | 2005-11-14 | Variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1815114A4 (en) |
CA (1) | CA2588385A1 (en) |
WO (1) | WO2006055540A1 (en) |
Families Citing this family (16)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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US7225787B2 (en) * | 2004-11-18 | 2007-06-05 | Massachusetts Institute Of Technology | Optimized fuel management system for direct injection ethanol enhancement of gasoline engines |
US7647916B2 (en) | 2005-11-30 | 2010-01-19 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Engine with two port fuel injectors |
US7395786B2 (en) | 2005-11-30 | 2008-07-08 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Warm up strategy for ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port fuel injection |
US7406947B2 (en) | 2005-11-30 | 2008-08-05 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | System and method for tip-in knock compensation |
US8132555B2 (en) | 2005-11-30 | 2012-03-13 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Event based engine control system and method |
US8267074B2 (en) | 2006-03-17 | 2012-09-18 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Control for knock suppression fluid separator in a motor vehicle |
US7909019B2 (en) | 2006-08-11 | 2011-03-22 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Direct injection alcohol engine with boost and spark control |
JP4501950B2 (en) * | 2007-03-27 | 2010-07-14 | 日産自動車株式会社 | Combustion control device for internal combustion engine |
EP1980730B1 (en) * | 2007-04-10 | 2018-10-31 | Ford Global Technologies, LLC | Apparatus with mixed fuel separator and method of separating a mixed fuel |
FR2916805B1 (en) * | 2007-06-01 | 2012-12-21 | Renault Sas | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING A QUANTITY OF ALCOHOL CONTAINED IN THE FUEL OF AN ENGINE. |
US8214130B2 (en) | 2007-08-10 | 2012-07-03 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Hybrid vehicle propulsion system utilizing knock suppression |
US7971567B2 (en) | 2007-10-12 | 2011-07-05 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Directly injected internal combustion engine system |
US8118009B2 (en) | 2007-12-12 | 2012-02-21 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | On-board fuel vapor separation for multi-fuel vehicle |
US8550058B2 (en) | 2007-12-21 | 2013-10-08 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | Fuel rail assembly including fuel separation membrane |
US7845315B2 (en) | 2008-05-08 | 2010-12-07 | Ford Global Technologies, Llc | On-board water addition for fuel separation system |
WO2011004660A1 (en) | 2009-07-10 | 2011-01-13 | 日本碍子株式会社 | Method for producing carbon film, carbon film and separator |
Family Cites Families (8)
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JPS5728831A (en) * | 1980-07-28 | 1982-02-16 | Nissan Motor Co Ltd | Fuel controller |
US4402296A (en) * | 1981-05-04 | 1983-09-06 | Schwarz Walter J | Dual fuel supply system and method for an internal combustion engine |
JP4214586B2 (en) * | 1998-12-11 | 2009-01-28 | 日産自動車株式会社 | Fuel supply method for gasoline internal combustion engine |
US6076487A (en) * | 1999-02-25 | 2000-06-20 | Go-Tec | Internal combustion system using acetylene fuel |
JP2001355472A (en) * | 2000-06-09 | 2001-12-26 | Katsuyuki Miwa | Combustion device and internal combustion engine |
US6622663B2 (en) * | 2001-03-27 | 2003-09-23 | Exxonmobil Research And Engineering Company | Fuel composition supply means for driving cycle conditions in spark ignition engines |
JP3991789B2 (en) * | 2002-07-04 | 2007-10-17 | トヨタ自動車株式会社 | An internal combustion engine that compresses and ignites the mixture. |
JP4214788B2 (en) * | 2003-02-05 | 2009-01-28 | トヨタ自動車株式会社 | Spark ignition internal combustion engine and combustion control method |
-
2005
- 2005-11-14 WO PCT/US2005/041317 patent/WO2006055540A1/en active Application Filing
- 2005-11-14 CA CA002588385A patent/CA2588385A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2005-11-14 EP EP05851653.5A patent/EP1815114A4/en not_active Withdrawn
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
WO2006055540A1 (en) | 2006-05-26 |
EP1815114A4 (en) | 2015-01-21 |
EP1815114A1 (en) | 2007-08-08 |
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