Assessment of the use of ethanol instead of MTBE as an oxygenated compound in Mexican regular gasoline: combustion behavior and emissions.

The energy reforms implemented in Mexico promote the use of ethanol in gasoline but exclude the country's ozone nonattainment areas oxygenated with methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in view that further scientific studies are required. To address a potential implementation scenario in areas of ozone high VOC-sensitive regimes, the impact on performance and emissions characteristics between the regular MTBE fuel available and a formulated gasoline containing 10% v/v ethanol having similar Reid vapor pressure (RVP) were compared in a single cylinder spark-ignited engine and a set of tier I vehicles. Included in the assessment were the "criteria" pollutants (THC, CO, and NOx), toxic compounds, and speciated hydrocarbons in order to calculate the ozone-forming potential (OFP). The change in combustion speed of ethanol fuel vs. regular gasoline seems to be small and depends mainly on base gasoline formulation. Vehicle dynamometer testing showed no statistically significant differences in the average THC, CO, and NOx results when comparing both fuels. Statistically significant differences were seen in total speciated hydrocarbons, total carbonyls emitted, the increases in acetaldehyde emissions, and the decreases in OFP with E10. The results show roughly 20% increase in evaporative emissions when E10 is used, but the OFP of the emissions is lower than that of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City fuel (MAMC). The increase in the oxygen content using ethanol fuel seems to have no deleterious effect on the vintage of vehicles tested. Taking into consideration that the evaporative emissions standard in Mexico is less stringent than that in other countries, the substitution of the actual regular gasoline for ethanol fuels should uphold the least volatile AA class in areas with ozone problems.

Assessment of environmentally friendly fuel emissions from in-use vehicle exhaust: low-blend iso-stoichiometric GEM mixture as example.

Gasoline-ethanol-methanol fuel blends were formulated with the same stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio and volumetric energy concentration as any binary ethanol-gasoline blend. When the stoichiometric blends operated in a vehicle, the time period, injector voltage, and pressure for each fuel injection event in the engine corresponded to a given stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio, and the load was essentially constant. Three low oxygen content iso-stoichiometric ternary gasoline-ethanol-methanol fuel blends were prepared, and the properties were compared with regular-type fuel without added oxygen. One of the ternary fuels was tested using a fleet of in-use vehicles for15 weeks and compared to neat gasoline without oxygenated compounds as a reference. Only a small number of publications have compared these ternary fuels in the same engine, and little data exist on the performance and emissions of in-use spark-ignition engines. The total hydrocarbon emissions observed was similar in both fuels, in addition to the calculated ozone forming potential of the tailpipe and evaporative emissions. In ozone non-attainment areas, the original purpose for oxygenate gasolines was to decrease carbon monoxide emissions. The results suggest that the strategy is less effective than expected because there still exist a great number of vehicles that have suffered the progressive deterioration of emissions and do not react to oxygenation, while new vehicles are equipped with sophisticated air/fuel control systems, and oxygenation does not improve combustion because the systems adjust the stoichiometric point, making it insensitive to the origin of the added excess oxygen (fuel or excess air). Graphical abstract Low level ternary blend of gasoline-ethanol-methanol were prepared with the same stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and volumetric energy concentration, based on the volumetric energy density of the pre-blended components. Exhaust and evaporative emissions was compared with a blend having no oxygen in a fleet of 12 in-use vehicles. Vehicles that had suffer a normal deterioration of emissions and do not react to oxygenation, and new vehicles with more sophisticated air/fuel control systems do not improve combustion.