Fuel 86 (2007) 1651 www.fuelrst.

com

Letter to the editor

Possible diculties with the incorporation of ethanol into fuels for CI engines The paper Solubility of a dieselbiodieselethanol blend, its fuel properties, and its emission characteristics from diesel engine by Prommes Kwanchareon, Apanee Luengnaruemitchai and Samai Jai-In, Fuel, 2007, 86, 10531061 and available through Science Direct, discusses the use of carbon neutral materials including ethanol as components of fuel for diesel engines and states: Generally, ethanol can be blended with diesel with no engine modications required a statement which possibly requires clarication. For spark ignition (SI) engines ethanol is, by reason of its good octane number, a suitable fuel and can be mixed with conventional gasoline. An example is E85, which is 85% ethanol balance conventional gasoline having a Research Octane Number of 105. E85 is available for sale in several US states. A exible-fuel vehicle (FFV) can run on any blend of ethanolgasoline in the composition range from pure gasoline to E85. Most of the manufacturers which supply cars to the US make FFV versions of at least some of their models available. When however a fuel for a compression ignition (CI) engine contains ethanol there is nowhere near as much exibility. Ethanol alone has a cetane number of eight and therefore cannot be used in CI engines. Experience in a number of countries is that ethanol at up to 15% by weight blended with mineral diesel will not cause the cetane number to move outside the range of values suitable for diesel cars and commercials. Readers of the paper under discussion should therefore be aware that there is less scope for ethanol use in CI engines than in SI engines. The paper under discussion originates in Thailand and is concerned with biodiesel as well as with alcohols. On page 11 of the November 2006 issue of The Chemical Engineer it is announced that Thailands plans to produce biodiesel have, under the post-coup government, been scrapped. J.C. Jones University of Aberdeen, Department of Engineering, AB24 3UE, United Kingdom Tel.: +44 1224 272793; fax: +44 1224 272497 E-mail address: j.c.jones@eng.abdn.ac.uk Available online 19 December 2006

0016-2361/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2006.11.029