SAE TECHNICAL

PAPER SERIES 2006-01-3380

The Effect of Ethanol Fuel on a

Spark Ignition Engine
Koichi Nakata, Shintaro Utsumi, Atsuharu Ota, Katsunori Kawatake,
Takashi Kawai and Takashi Tsunooka
Toyota Motor Corporation

Powertrain & Fluid Systems

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 2006-01-3380

The Effect of Ethanol Fuel on a Spark Ignition Engine

Koichi Nakata, Shintaro Utsumi, Atsuharu Ota, Katsunori Kawatake,
Takashi Kawai and Takashi Tsunooka
Toyota Motor Corporation

Copyright © 2006 SAE International

ABSTRACT concentrations of 10% or less. Even in regions where

ethanol is used in high concentrations, gasoline is widely
Since ethanol is a renewable source of energy and it used, so flexible fuel vehicles, known as FFVs, have
contributes to lower CO2 emissions, ethanol produced been introduced into the market. These FFVs can
from biomass is expected to increase in use as an operate on gasoline or any ethanol concentration.
alternative fuel. It is recognized that for spark ignition
(SI) engines ethanol has advantages of high octane The properties of ethanol are shown in Table 1. Ethanol
number and high combustion speed and has a has different properties from gasoline. Ethanol has
disadvantage of difficult startability at low temperature. higher octane number [1-5], higher latent heat of
evaporation, and different stoichiometric air fuel ratio.
This paper investigates the influence of ethanol fuel on Ethanol boils at 78.5oC as shown in Figure 1. It is known
SI engine performance, thermal efficiency, and that this property influences cold startability [6-8].
emissions. The combustion characteristics under cold
engine conditions are also examined. This study considers the effect of ethanol concentration
on thermal efficiency, torque, emissions, and combustion
Ethanol has high anti-knock quality due to its high octane at low temperature.
number, and high latent heat of evaporation, which
decreases the compressed gas temperature during the Table 1 Properties of Ethanol
compression stroke. In addition to the effect of latent
Gasoline Ethanol
heat of evaporation, the difference of combustion
products compared with gasoline further decreases RON 92 111
combustion temperature, thereby reducing cooling heat Density (g/cm 3) 0.74 0.79
loss. As a result, torque and thermal efficiency increase
Heat of Combustion (MJ/kg) 42.4 26.8
compared to gasoline. Also, reductions in CO2, NOx, and
THC are described. Stoichiometric Air Fuel Ratio 14.3 9.0
oC)
Boiling Point ( 78.5
To improve combustion under cold conditions, methods
of increasing fuel temperature or the compressed gas Latent Heat of Evaporation (kJ/kg) 420 845
temperature during the compression stroke are
considered. In the latter case, simulation showed valve
timing to be effective. Based on simulation results, the
200
effect of valve timing optimization on improving Gasoline
Temperature (oC)

combustion at low temperature is investigated with an

engine. 150
Ethanol

INTRODUCTION 100

For the modern world, fossil fuels have become the 50

dominant energy resource for transportation. Recently,
ethanol is being used extensively as a fuel additive or an 0
0 20 40 60 80 10 0
alternative fuel because it is a high-octane, clean-burning Percent Distilled
fuel that is produced from renewable sources like corn,
Figure 1 Distillation Properties
wheat, sugar cane, etc. Ethanol is used in high
concentrations in some regions like Brazil, North
America, and Sweden, but globally it is used in lower
1
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The engine selected for this study is a conventional
engine (1NZ-FE) which is used in the Toyota Corolla in
Japan. To demonstrate the potential of ethanol on anti-
knock quality and engine performance, the compression
ratio is raised from 10.5 to 13 by exchanging pistons. In
practice, since regular gasoline is widely used, the
compression ratio could not be raised this high for
conventional engines. Table 2 shows the main
specifications of the test engine.
Table 3 shows the properties of the test gasoline.
Gasoline A is 92 RON gasoline and has properties
similar to U.S. regular gasoline. Gasoline A is blended
with ethanol to investigate the effect of the ethanol ratio.
Gasoline B is 100 RON gasoline and has properties
similar to Japanese premium gasoline. Gasoline B is
used as reference. In this paper the name E20 would
thus refer to a blend of 80% Gasoline A and 20% ethanol.
Engine torque, fuel consumption, and emissions are
measured at part load (BMEP 0.2MPa) and at wide open
throttle (WOT) conditions on the test bed. In these tests,
the ignition timing is MBT or limited by trace knock for
each fuel. The knock level is evaluated by listening to
the knocking sound through a microphone that is located
by the engine and monitoring signals from a knock
sensor. Also, the transient combustion characteristics
are evaluated for each fuel at low temperature. The
combustion characteristics are evaluated by analyzing
combustion pressure using a sensor that is installed in
the cylinder head.
RESULTS AND DISSCUSSIONS
EFFECTS OF ETHANOL ON ENGINE TORQUE
In Figure 2, engine torque, ignition timing, and volumetric
efficiency are plotted against the ethanol ratio at
2800rpm WOT.

Table 2 Engine Specifications Engine torque increases as the ethanol ratio increases.
With E100, the engine torque increases by 20%
Number of Cylinders 4
compared to Gasoline A (92 RON) and increases by 5%
Bore×Stroke 75mm×84.7mm compared to Gasoline B (100 RON). This is because the
Compression Ratio 13 ignition timing is retarded from MBT with Gasoline A, E10,
E20, and gasoline B due to knock. The reason why the
Displacement 1496cc ignition timing can be advanced as the ethanol increases
Fuel Injection System MPI is that ethanol has high anti-knock quality due to its high
octane number and decreased gas temperature during
Number of Valves 4
the compression stroke resulting from its high latent heat
Intake Valve Open 8deg. BTDC of evaporation.
Intake Valve Close 37deg. ABDC
The increased torque effect saturates around 50% (E50).
Exhaust Valve Open 42deg. BBDC The reason is that it is possible to achieve MBT around
Exhaust Valve Close 2deg. ATDC 50% (E50). This result shows that E100 could allow even
higher compression ratio and could lead to higher engine
torque.
Table 3 Gasoline Fuel Properties
On the other hand, Figure 2 shows that higher ethanol
Fuel Gasoline Gasoline
ratio decreases volumetric efficiency. With E100,
A B
volumetric efficiency decreases by 2%. The reason is
RON 91.5 99.6 that the stoichiometric air fuel ratio of ethanol is 9, which
MON 83.0 87.1 is lower than that of gasoline, so much more injection
volume is required.
Density (g/cm 3) 0.736 0.760
RVP (kPa) 63.0 60.0 Engine performance at various engine speeds is shown
IBP (oC) 31.5 33.5 in Figure 3. As the ethanol ratio increases, engine
torque increases at all engine speeds.
T10 (oC) 50.0 53.0
T30 (oC) 71.5 72.5 These results show that ethanol is effective when it is
T50 (oC) 98.0 95.0
used as E100, and it is obvious that ethanol can improve
the engine torque by being blended with gasoline as an
T70 (oC) 127.5 116.5 octane booster, such as E10 or E20.
T90 (oC) 158.0 148.5
EP (oC) 176.5 179.5
Aromatics (%) 26.7 43.2
Olefins (%) 9.9 19.7
Saturates (%) 63.4 37.1

2
To verify the decrease of combustion temperature with EFFECT OF ETHANOL ON EMISSIONS
ethanol, the temperature of the center electrode of a
spark plug is compared in Figure 7. The temperature In Figure 8, Thermal efficiency, CO2, NOx, THC
measurement of the center electrode is accomplished by emissions, and ignition timing are plotted against the
using a spark plug that has a thermo couple in the center ethanol ratio at 2000rpm BMEP 0.2MPa. The ignition
electrode. Ethanol gives approximately 10oC lower timing is MBT for each fuel. Ethanol has higher
temperature than gasoline. From these results, it is combustion speed than gasoline, therefore ignition timing
proven that the combustion temperature of ethanol is of ethanol is retarded. Figure 8 shows CO2, THC, and
lower than that of gasoline. NOx decrease as the ethanol ratio increases.

2800rpm WOT 2000rpm BMEP 0.2 MPa Lambda = 1

42
Thermal Efficiency (%)

MBT Compression Ratio = 13

40 15

IgnitionTtiming
M

(deg. BTDC)
14 M ：MBT
38 M M M
Ethanol 13
36 M
Trace 12
34 Gasoline
Knock 11
A (92RON)
32 Trace Knock 20

THC (g/kWh) NOx (g/kWh)

B (100RON) 15
30 10
-5 0 5 10 15
5
Ignition timing (deg. BTDC)
0
Figure 5 Comparison of Thermal Efficiency 8
at Various Ignition Timing 6
4
2800rpm WOT 2
Ignition Timing 0
CO2 (g/kWh)
7.5 deg.BTDC 8 deg.BTDC 1160
100 1140
Heat Balance (%)

1120
80 1100
Unknow n 1080
60 Exhaust Heat Loss
22.5 1060
21.2 Cooling Heat Loss
Thermal Eff iciency (%)

40 Mechanical Loss 24.0

Thermal Efficiency 23.5
20
23.0
0 22.5
Gasoline B Ethanol
22.0
(100RON) 0 20 40 60 80 100
Figure 6 Effect of Ethanol on Heat Balance Ethanol Ratio (vol. %)
Figure 8 Effects of Ethanol on Thermal
2800rpm WOT Efficiency and Emissions
Ignition Timing
Center Electrode Temperature

7.5 deg.BTDC 8 deg.BTDC

560 CO2 reduction is due to the 3% higher thermal efficiency
of Spark Plug (oC)

than gasoline and from ethanol’s higher H/C ratio. The

555 reduction in NOx results from the decrease of
combustion gas temperature as described above. It is
550 assumed that the THC decreases because ethanol does
not have components which boil at high temperature like
545 gasoline.

540 Based on the above results, it has been demonstrated

Gasoline B Ethanol that compared with gasoline, ethanol derived from
Figure 7 Comparison of Spark Plug Temperature biomass results in reduced CO2.

To summarize the effect of ethanol on high thermal

efficiency, it has been shown that ethanol has high anti-
knock quality due to high octane number and also has
lower cooling heat loss than gasoline.

4
EFFECT OF ETHANOL ON COMBUSTION UNDER As described, the number of cycles until combustion
COLD CONDITION begins cannot be explained by boiling point or latent heat
of evaporation, so the relationship between vapor
It is recognized that ethanol has severe issues regarding pressure and excess air ratio (lambda) is considered [9].
cold startability and drivability. As shown in Figure 1, one
1300rpm, Coolant Temperature: 4 oC
factor for the poor startability of ethanol is that it is a
Intake Air Temperature:10 oC
single component, with a fixed boiling point of 78.5oC.
Mo ving Average of 5 cycles
Therefore ethanol, unlike gasoline, does not include Intake Manifold Vacuum:-77kPa
volatile components. High latent heat of evaporation is 100
also considered as a factor of poor startability. Figure 9
shows the difference of boiling point and latent heat of Iso-octane
50
evaporation between gasoline and alcohol. In this study,

IMEP (kPa)
methanol and iso-octane, which consist of single
components and have different boiling points and latent 0 Gasoline
heat of evaporation than ethanol, are used to examine
cold combustion. -50
Ethanol
Methanol
-100
1200
Evaporation (kJ/kg)

methanol 0 50 100 150 200

1000 alcohol Cycle Number after Fuel Injection
ethanol
Latent Heat of

800
propanol Figure 10 Comparison of Combustion under
cyclo-hexane 1-buthanol Cold Condition
600 pentane
components of
400 gasoline
200 In Figure 11 the saturated vapor pressures of ethanol,
iso-octane toluene methanol, and iso-octane at various temperatures are
0 shown. Methanol has the highest vapor pressure among
0 50 100 150 200
Boiling Point (oC) these fuels. As shown in equation (1) and (2), these fuels
Figure 9 Difference of Evaporation have different stoichiometric air fuel ratios, so vapor
Properties among Fuels pressures required to get stoichiometric mixtures are
also different.

The test procedure is as follows. First, after the engine is

completely warmed up, ignition timing and fuel injection
Vapor Pressure (kPa)

100
volume are fixed in a condition where engine speed is
1300rpm, engine torque is 0 N-m, air-fuel ratio is 80 Ethanol
stoichiometric, intake manifold vacuum is -77kPa and 60 Methanol
ignition timing is MBT. Next, the engine is stopped and
the engine coolant is chilled to 4oC with a cooling unit. 40
Then, after motoring the engine at 1300rpm with the Iso-octane
20
dynamometer, fuel injection is started and transient
change of combustion is measured. 0 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Temperature (oC)
Figure 10 shows the moving average of indicated mean
effective pressure (IMEP) after fuel injection starts. Cycle Figure 11 Vapor Pressure
0 corresponds to the time when injection has not started
yet, so IMEP is negative because intake manifold Figure 12 shows that the required vapor pressure for a
vacuum is -77kPa and pumping loss occurs. Cycle 1 is stoichiometric mixture is 12.4kPa for methanol, 6.6kPa
the time when the injection starts. Usually injection for ethanol, and 1.7kPa for iso-octane under the
volume is increased as the engine temperature condition that the full pressure of the mixture is 101kPa.
decreases. In this test, injection volume is not increased For example, at 0oC, because saturated vapor pressure
in accordance with engine temperature. Therefore it is 4.0kPa with methanol, 1.6kPa with ethanol, and
requires several engine cycles until combustion starts. 1.7kPa with iso-octane at the equilibrium condition,
excess air ratio (lambda) of saturated vapor is 3.4 with
Ethanol and methanol require around 20 cycles until methanol, 4.4 with ethanol, and 1.0 with iso-octane; i.e.
combustion begins. Combustion of iso-octane begins iso-octane has the richest mixture under this assumption.
within a few cycles after fuel injection starts as does
gasoline. Iso-octane, which has the highest boiling point,
requires minimum cycles until combustion begins.
Combustion of methanol, which has the highest latent
heat of evaporation, begins in fewer cycles than ethanol.
5
 The effects of 3 methods of increasing compressed gas
temperature (high compression ratio, hot intake air by
Saturated Vapor
14 heating, and valve timing optimization) are estimated
Lambda 1 Pressure ( 0 oC)
12 using simulation. Figure 14 shows the comparison of the
Vapor Pressure (kPa)

Required Vapor Pressure in-cylinder gas temperatures at top dead center (TDC) of
10 for Stoichiometric A/F the compression stroke. The effect on increasing in-
8 (ambient pressure) cylinder gas temperature is 30oC where compression
ratio is raised by 2, and 60oC where intake air
6 Lambda 1 temperature is increased by 30oC, and 120oC by valve
4 3.4 timing optimization. This effect of valve timing
2 4.4 1.0 optimization has two factors. The first factor is that intake
1 valve open timing (-60deg.BTDC) is much later and valve
0 lift (1.6mm) is much smaller compared to conventional
Methanol Ethanol Iso-octane engines. When the intake valves open, the cylinder gas
Figure 12 Comparison of Saturated Vapor Pressure and pressure (20kPa) is low and the difference between
Required Vapor Pressure for Stoichiometric A/F intake port gas pressure (100kPa) and cylinder gas
pressure (20kPa) is large. As a result, the intake air
velocity through the intake valves is faster than
From the assumption described above, lambda of conventional engines. In this process, the intake air is
saturated vapor at various temperatures is shown in heated. The second factor is the intake valves close
Figure 13. Figure 13 shows that the temperature where around bottom dead center and the effective
saturated vapor becomes a stoichiometric mixture compression ratio (10.4) increases. Therefore the
increases in order of iso-octane, methanol, and ethanol. compressed gas temperature increases and the valve
This represents the same tendency as the result of the timing optimization is found to be the most effective
number of cycles when combustion begins as described method.
above. This implies that fuel, which has lower lambda
when the vapor pressure is saturated, can acquire good 600rpm Motoring WOT
startability. On an actual engine, the following factors
must be taken into consideration. One factor is that the Compression Ratio 10.5 12.5 10.5 10.5
injected fuel requires time to vaporize. A second factor is Intake Valve
that there is some amount of fuel which is carried into the Open(deg.BTDC) 4 4 4 -60
cylinder by the intake air as liquid which vaporizes during Close(deg.ABDC) 66 66 66 10
the compression stroke. Cylinder Gas
Pressure at I.V.O. 100 100 100 20
(kPa)
Effective 8.2 9.8 8.2 10.4
Gas Temperature at TDC (oC)

5 500 Compression Ratio

Excess Air Ratio

Valve Lift(mm) 11.1 11.1 11.1 1.6

4 Iso-octane Temperature of
Lambda

3 450 Intake Air (oC) -10 -10 20 -10

Methanol
2 Ethanol
400
1
0 350
-20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Temperature (oC)
300
Figure 13 Lambda of Saturated Vapor Initial High Hot Valve
under Ambient Pressure Compression Air Timing
Figure 14 Effect of Valve Timing on
IMPROVING COLD COMBUSTION OF ETHANOL Compression Gas Temperature

Several methods are considered to vaporize fuel and
make a combustible mixture under cold conditions
including fuel heating, intake port heating, and increasing
compressed gas temperature. For the purpose of
increasing compressed gas temperature, in addition to
heating intake air directly, raising compression ratio and
valve timing optimization are considered. Raising
compression ratio and valve timing optimization are
considered to be effective in practical use, because
those methods do not need time to preheat fuel, etc.
6
The valve timing optimization, which has a large effect on
increasing compressed gas temperature and does not
need preheating time, is applied to the test engine and
cold combustion is examined again. For this test, the
engine load that results in IMEP 800kPa under
completely warmed up engine condition is first
determined. This load is then used for the starting tests
in order to approximate air volume for a real engine start
condition. The temperature condition is changed to
ambient temperature (25oC), because combustion does
not start below 15oC with initial valve timing.
Figure 15 shows a comparison between initial valve
timing and optimized valve timing. Even when the coolant
temperature is 30oC, combustion with initial valve timing
is not good. On the other hand, it can be seen that
combustion with valve timing optimization has been
improved.
As a result, it was confirmed that optimization of the
valvetrain system has potential to improve startability
under cold conditions.
1300rpm, Coolant Temperature: 25 oC
Intake Air Temperature: 25 oC
Mo ving Average of 5 cycles
800
600
IMEP (kPa)
400 E100 with valve timing optimization
200
0 3.
E100 with initial valve timing
-200
0 50 100 150
Cycle Number after Fuel Injection
Figure 15 Effect of Valve Timing on
Cold Combustion of Ethanol
CONCLUSIONS
This paper investigates the influences of ethanol fuel on
SI engine performance, thermal efficiency and emissions.
To demonstrate the potential of ethanol on anti-knock
quality and engine performance, compression ratio is
raised to 13. The combustion characteristics under cold
engine conditions are also examined.
1. Ethanol improves engine torque and thermal efficiency.
The reasons for the improved torque and thermal
efficiency are that ethanol has higher anti-knock quality
due to high octane number and that cooling heat loss
decreases due to lower combustion temperature. The
decrease results from a difference of mole numbers of
combustion products compared to gasoline.
2. Ethanol results in reduction of NOx and THC
compared to gasoline. NOx reduction results from lower
combustion temperatures. It is assumed that THC
decreases because ethanol does not have components
boiling at high temperature like gasoline. Based on these
reductions, ethanol is an effective fuel for lowering
exhaust emissions.
3. Combustion characteristics at low temperature cannot
be explained by boiling point or latent heat of evaporation.
It was found that the relationship between saturated
vapor pressure and excess air ratio must be considered.
4. Optimizing valve timing for increased compressed gas
temperature was proven to be effective to improve the
combustion characteristics at low temperature. From this
study the potential for improving the cold startability has
just been confirmed, so this study has to be continued.
It has been demonstrated that ethanol can be used not
only as a single component fuel, but also blended with
gasoline as an octane booster. By blending ethanol with
gasoline as E10 or E20 to increase octane number,
ethanol allows compression ratio to be raised which can
result in improved engine torque and reduced CO2.
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