International Journal of Ambient Energy

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Characterisation of spark plug deposits of an SI

engine fuelled with gasoline-ethanol blends

Garima Kushwaha, Samir Saraswati & Bireswar Paul

To cite this article: Garima Kushwaha, Samir Saraswati & Bireswar Paul (2022) Characterisation
of spark plug deposits of an SI engine fuelled with gasoline-ethanol blends, International
Journal of Ambient Energy, 43:1, 5309-5317, DOI: 10.1080/01430750.2021.1946142

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01430750.2021.1946142

Published online: 01 Jul 2021.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMBIENT ENERGY
2022, VOL. 43, NO. 1, 5309–5317
https://doi.org/10.1080/01430750.2021.1946142

Characterisation of spark plug deposits of an SI engine fuelled with gasoline-ethanol

blends
Garima Kushwaha, Samir Saraswati and Bireswar Paul
Mechanical Engineering Department, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This work investigates the effect of gasoline-ethanol blends on spark plug deposits. The mass of deposits Received 25 January 2019
rapidly increases in all blends at first, then stabilises to an equilibrium state. The steady-state deposit mass Accepted 16 June 2021
for fuel E0, E5, E10, and E15 is found to be 1.0994, 1.6890, 2.2432, and 3.1420 g, respectively. The scanning KEYWORDS
electron microscope results show that the deposits are porous and formed by agglomeration of fine par- Gasoline; ethanol; carbon
ticles. However, as the ethanol fraction increases, the microstructures of the deposits become denser and deposits; spark plug;
more compact. The maximum particle diameter for E0 is found to be 5.71 µm while it increases to 13.61 µm scanning electron
for E15. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results show the presence of metal elements such as iron, microscopy
zinc, aluminium, copper, and nickel, and other elements such as calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, and sodium.
The deposits conductive in nature promote the chance of side sparking.

1. Introduction
The spark plug is one of the key components of the SI engine
with its primary function to ignite air–fuel mixture within the
combustion chamber under all operating conditions. A sufficient
amount of voltage is supplied to spark plug central electrode to
generate an intensely localised spark across the spark plug gap.
The combustible gas between the electrodes is then ionised and
excited by the high plasma energy, forming the initial spark ker-
nel (Duan et al. 2021). The central electrode is insulated from the
other components at ground potential. Inside the combustion
chamber, the spark plug is exposed to combustion products that
promote the formation of carbon deposits on the insulator. If
the deposits, which are conductive in nature, connect insulator
and central electrode, an additional shunt path is available for
the spark to occur. When the resistance across the shunt path
gets lower than the resistance of air gap between centre and
ground electrode, a diffused side spark occurs between insulator
nose and spark plug metal housing (Figure 1). The side spark-
ing results in lower plug voltage, unstable ignition and misfire
(Anand et al. 2020). The misfiring in an engine can lead to a loss
in efficiency and an increase in fuel consumption and emissions
like hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) (Kushwaha
and Saraswati 2016; Kushwaha, Saraswati, and Paul 2017). Sev-
eral factors influence the characteristics of the deposits that
adhere to the spark plug insulator, including engine operating
conditions, the spatial and temporal history of cylinder tem-
perature, boundary conditions, and the physiochemical proper-
ties of the mixture. Many of these variables are influenced by
the type and composition of fuel used. Nowadays, much atten-
tion is paid in the field of internal combustion engines to the
search for environmentally friendly fuels derived from renew-
able sources. Among the various alternative fuels, the use of
alcohols is actively pursued in many parts of the world because
they are simple to produce, transport, and incorporate into inter-
nal combustion engines without requiring significant changes
in engine design. In India, ethanol is the most widely used and
promoted alcohol. When ethanol is blended with gasoline in the
proper ratio, it improves many of its properties. Table 1 shows
the major properties of ethanol in comparison to gasoline.
The volumetric efficiency of engine fuelled with gasoline-
ethanol blend is higher than gasoline engine, as ethanol has
a high latent heat of vaporisation which reduces the intake
air temperature (Duan et al. 2018, 2020). Blending gasoline
with ethanol also improves combustion efficiency, lowers the
brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and reduces NOx and
soot emissions by lowering in-cylinder temperature. Moreover,
since ethanol has a higher octane number and has strong anti-
knocking properties, blending it with gasoline can increase the
compression ratio of the engine and thus increasing the indi-
cated thermal efficiency (Duan et al. 2018, 2020). Besides that, as
the percentage of ethanol in the fuel increases, the HC and CO
emissions decrease due to the additional oxygen content sup-
plied by the ethanol (Yüksel and Yüksel 2004; Iodice, Langella,
and Amoresano 2017). Furthermore, when a rich mixture is sup-
plied to the engine under high load and high-speed conditions,
ethanol blending promotes high flame speed, resulting in com-
plete combustion and lower HC and CO emissions (Al-Baghdadi
2008; Masum et al. 2013).
In spite of these advantages, there are some issues where
ethanol blending with gasoline causes concern and requires
attention. First of all, ethanol is hygroscopic due to which it
attracts more water from the environment. The water has a cor-
rosive effect on engine and fuel systems and this is undesirable
for engine operations as it can cause damage to the engine
components since these components are made of metals such
as steel and zinc–aluminium alloys. It has been reported that

CONTACT Samir Saraswati samirsaraswati811@hotmail.com

© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
5310 G. KUSHWAHA ET AL.

deposit precursors. The morphology and chemical composition

of deposits is effected by the source of these precursors. (Price,
Spink, and Morley 1997). Kalghatgi (1995) reported that aro-
matic contents in the fuel are most prone to deposit formation
due to the high boiling point. Paraffins are least prone while
olefins lie in between the two in deposit forming tendency. High-
aromatic fuels are found to produce ‘condensed’ deposits and
low-aromatic fuels produce ‘fluffier’ deposits. Chapman (1991)
had investigated the microstructure of deposits using Scanning
Electron Microscopy (SEM). In their study, they investigated the
morphology of deposits formed from leaded and unleaded fuel
Figure 1. Schematic of spark plug tip with carbon deposits and side sparking.
and concluded that the deposits formed with unleaded fuel are
less porous than the deposits formed with leaded fuel. They
Table 1. Properties of ethanol vis-à-vis gasoline (Elfasakhany 2015; Sakthivel, Sub- depicted the top view of these deposits as ‘cauliflower florets’
ramanian, and Mathai 2018).
of ash in a ‘sea’ of carbonaceous/organic material. Cheng (1996)
Property Ethanol Gasoline carried out a combustion chamber deposit micrographic anal-
Molecular formula C2H5OH C4–C12 ysis. It was discovered that deposits produced on various parts
Molecular weight 46 95–120 of the combustion chamber have different morphology, due to
Oxygen fraction (%) 34.8 0
differences in surface temperature and deposit precursor prop-
Carbon fraction (%) 52.2 87.4
Hydrogen fraction (%) 13.0 12.6 erties. The deposit precursors were discovered to be originated
Density (kg/m3 ) 785 740 from either fuel or additives. The deposit precursors derived
Kinematic viscosity (mm2 /s) 1.2–1.5 0.5–0.6 from fuel are partially oxidised fuel, while the deposit precur-
LHV (MJ/kg) 26.9 44.3
Octane number 108 > 90 sors derived from additives are the additive itself in the liquid
Auto-ignition temp. (°C) 425 228–470 form. To study the effect of fuel composition on deposit for-
Vapour flammability limits (vol %) 3.5–15 0.6–8 mation, Aradi et al. (1999) investigated ten fuels with different
Laminar flame speed at 100 kPa, 325 K (cm/s) ∼ 39 ∼ 33
Stoichiometric A/F ratio 9.00 14.8 T90 temperatures (the temperature at which 90% of the fuel vol-
Latent heat of vapour (kJ/kg) 840 305 ume distils), sulphur levels, and olefin levels based on European
Distillation gasoline requirements for the year 2000. SEM and infrared spec-
Initial boiling point (°C) 78 45
T10 (°C) 78 54 troscopy were used to examine the deposits that were formed
T50 (°C) 78 96 with each fuel. The deposit precursors formed by thermal crack-
T90 (°C) 79 168 ing, oxidation and polymerisation of the fuel, were found to have
Final boiling point (°C) 79 207
a ‘furrow’ morphology. Furthermore, when the T90 temperature
was raised from 160°C to 182°C, it was discovered that injector
as the percentage of ethanol and water in gasoline increases, deposits were decreased. Moreover, an increase in sulphur con-
it accelerates corrosion on engine components (Baena, Gómez, tent from 30 to 150 ppm, and also olefin levels from 5% to 20%,
and Calderón 2012). Secondly, as ethanol does not contain any had no discernible impact on injector deposits. They also stated
highly volatile component and has a high latent heat of vapori- that all of the fuel deposits were carbonaceous and contained
sation and T10 temperature (Table 1) as compared to gasoline, it lubricant elements such as magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur,
becomes difficult to vaporise ethanol when the engine is cold. calcium, and zinc.
Hence, availability of fuel vapour during cold start is an issue Another factor that governs the formation of engine deposits
with ethanol compared to gasoline. It has been reported that are additives that are used to improve the performance char-
ethanol will not form an air/fuel vapour mixture to support com- acteristic of gasoline. Zerda, Yuan, and Moore (2001) investi-
bustion if the temperature is below 11°C (Davis and Heil 2000). gated the influence of fuel additives on the microstructure of
Lastly, the addition of ethanol in gasoline lowers the vapour deposits. They evaluated two types of surfactant additive. One
pressure and increases the heat of vaporisation of fuel (Shirazi derived from poly-ether-amine (PEA) and one derived from poly-
et al. 2018), due to which, some of the spark energy is utilised butene-amine (PBA). At the completion of each test, deposit
in vaporising the fuel prior to ignition. If the activation energy material was removed by scraping the deposit from the com-
is not high enough to completely vaporise the fuel, a liquid bustion chamber. The conclusion was drawn that the surface
gasoline-ethanol layer will get deposited on spark plug insulator area of deposits decreased with the increase of additive con-
(Lande and Kongre 2016). The higher ethanol’s conductivity (105 centration. However, a high dose of these additives increases
times higher than gasoline, Davis and Heil 2000) and the pres- the unwashed gum content in gasoline. Further, Schwahn, Lutz,
ence of conductive metal elements in carbon deposits further and Kramer (2010) observed a slight increase in deposit forma-
exacerbate the probability of diffused side spark to occur. tion due to the presence of the additive package in the gaso-
The condensation of fuel, lubricating oil, or engine additives line. Using SEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX),
on a metal surface is the primary cause of deposit formation Javan, Hosseini, and Alaviyoun (2012) investigated spark plug
(Ortiz et al. 2013; Stępień 2015). Incomplete combustion of fuel, deposits produced in bi-fuel engines (gasoline and CNG). The
lubricating oil, or engine additives produces low volatility, par- surface of the spark plug tip was discovered to be coated in a
tially oxidised hydrocarbons. These species have the potential thin layer of porous carbon deposits. According to SEM images,
to condense at the metal surface and can be considered as the deposits were produced by the agglomeration of spherical
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMBIENT ENERGY 5311

particles with diameters ranging from 10 to 30 µm. The spark
plug deposits were found to be made up of a variety of elements,
including Carbon (C), Calcium (Ca), Silicon (Si), Phosphorus (P),
and Potassium (K). The deposits’ ingredients were found to be
originated from many different sources. More recently, Anand
et al. (2020) examined the carbon deposits on the spark plug
formed with gasoline as fuel. They found snow-like deposit that
covers the spark plug electrodes were made up of spherical par-
ticles having diameters in the range of 0.4–4.4 μm. The morphol-
ogy of spark plug deposits was found to be affected by many
operating conditions that include start of injection, temperature,
injection pressure, charge cooling and air swirl motion.
The addition of ethanol to gasoline has an effect on engine
deposits as well. It is widely reported that carbon deposits
will increase when ethanol is added to gasoline in modera-
tion up to about 10%–15% (DuMont et al. 2007; Stepien 2016).
However, for high ethanol levels between 25% and 100%, the
deposit accumulation is found to be decreasing (Vilardo et al.
2007). Experimental results different from these have also been
reported in the literature. This suggests that there are many com-
peting factors which govern the deposit formation. When factors
that support deposit formation dominate then deposit increases
and vice versa. In fact, the literature contains a variety of con-
tradictory viewpoints on the subject, and the role of ethanol in
carbon deposits is still argued. According to Taniguchi, Yoshida,
and Tsukasaki (2007) ethanol itself is unlikely to be a source of
the precursor, given that it constitutes a single fuel component
and contains no aromatic or sulphur content. However, its effect
on the engine deposit is regulated by the way it interacts with
deposit precursors coming from other sources. In the presence
of polar ethanol. The precursors that are polar gets dissolved as
their solubility behaviour follows simple empirical law, i.e. ‘like
dissolved like’ (Kalghatgi 1988; Martin and Bustamante 1993;
Ramadhas et al. 2011; Gangwar and Saraswati 2021). The non-
polar precursors remain undissolved and condense to form vis-
cous brown liquid deposits on the metal surface. These deposits
then polymerise and produce dark, hard and black solid car-
bon deposits when further heated. Furthermore, the high latent
heat of vaporisation as compared to gasoline (Shirazi et al. 2018),
causes the metal surface to relatively cool, leading to an increase
in engine deposits.
The boiling point of the fuel is another crucial parameter that
affects the quantity and morphology of deposits formed inside
the engine (Cerit and Soyhan 2013). Fuel components with a
high boiling point contribute most in deposit formation as they
have greater chances of condensation. Since ethanol has lower
molecular weight and lower boiling point as compared to 90%
distillation temperature (T90) of conventional gasoline; ethanol-
blended fuel should have a lower tendency of deposit formation
(Stein, Anderson, and Wallington 2013). In contradiction to this,
Xu et al. (2015), reported that the lower T90 of fuel due to ethanol
blending would allow the fuel to vaporise at lower metal sur-
face temperatures, allowing the precursors to aggregate on a
metal substrate and thus promoting deposit growth. Table 2
summarises the competing theories that exist in the literature
about the effect of ethanol blending on engine deposits.
According to the preceding discussion, there are numer-
ous conflicts in the literature regarding the effect of ethanol
blending in gasoline on deposit formation Furthermore, the lit-
erature on morphological and chemical analysis of spark plug
deposits is quite limited. As a result, more research is needed
to understand the effect of ethanol-gasoline blends on engine
deposits. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect
of ethanol blends on the morphological and chemical char-
acteristics of spark plug deposits. The investigation is carried
out by performing a spark plug deposit test on an engine test
bench with four different gasoline-ethanol blends. These are
commercial gasoline (E0), 5% ethanol-blended-gasoline (E5),
10% ethanol-blended-gasoline (E10) and 15% ethanol-blended-
gasoline (E15). Thereafter, deposit characteristics are studied
using SEM and EDS. The morphological and chemical analysis
of carbon deposits provides important information about the

Table 2. Competing theories that exist in the literature about the effect of ethanol blending on engine deposits.
S.no. Factor Effect Consequence References
1. Oxygen content As ethanol contains oxygen that results in efficient Reduces deposits Stein, Anderson, and Wallington
combustion 2013
2. Single component Ethanol is a single component fuel and does not Reduces deposits Taniguchi, Yoshida, and Tsukasaki
fuel contain any aromatic or sulphur contents hence, it 2007
does not act as a source of the deposit precursors.
3. Lower molecular Ethanol has lesser chances of condensation due to its Reduces deposits Kalghatgi 1995
weight lower molecular weight.
4. Lower T90 Ethanol evaporates more easily and has fewer chances Reduces deposits Stein, Anderson, and Wallington
Temperature of condensation due to its lower 90% distillation 2013
temperature (T90).
5. Lower T90 Ethanol blending would help the fuel to vaporise Increases deposits Xu et al. 2015
Temperature at lower metal surface temperature, leaving the
precursors to aggregate on a metal substrate.
6. High latent heat of Cause relative cooling of the metal surface leading to Increases deposits Shirazi et al. 2018
vaporisation an increase in engine deposits
7. Solvency and The solvency and polarity of the fuel changes with the Increases deposits Martin and Bustamante 1993;
polarity addition of ethanol. The polar ethanol will not be Ramadhas et al. 2011; Gangwar
able to completely dissolve the non-polar deposits and Saraswati 2021
precursors coming out due to oxidation of the oil.
The precursors will precipitate from solution in solid
form and can lead to the formation of deposits.
8. Deposit control If the deposit control additives are not fully soluble Increases deposits Pałuchowska and Jęczmionek
additives in the ethanol-gasoline blend, it can itself act as a 2015; Vilardo et al. 2007;
precursor and may enhance the deposit formation. Schwahn, Lutz, and Kramer 2010
5312 G. KUSHWAHA ET AL.
potential sources, agglomeration mechanisms, and parameters
that influence deposit formation.
2. Experimental setup
A single-cylinder four-stroke air-cooled SI engine (175 cc Bajaj
engine, Compression Ratio = 9) has been used to investigate
the effect of fuels on spark plug tip deposits. The engine is cou-
pled with an eddy current dynamometer that is controlled by a
closed-loop controller to allow the operation of the engine at
constant torque and constant speed mode. The deposit build-
up experiments are conducted on a nominal operating point of
3000 rpm and 15 N-m. A new spark plug (NGK MR7C-9N) is used
for each experiment. The deposits accumulated on the spark
plug tip are investigated periodically after every 2–4 h of engine
operation. Since deposits cannot be fully scraped from the spark
plug, the mass of accumulated deposits is determined by weigh-
ing the spark plug before and after each time interval (Kameoka
and Tsuchiya 2006). The weights were determined using an
ISHIDA DX-220E Lab balance weighing scale with a resolution of
0.0001 g. The growth of deposit reaches to a steady state after
24–28 h of engine operation. Figure 2 shows the new spark plug
and spark plug with deposit build up after 28 h of operation.
Thereafter, deposit samples are scrapped from spark plug using
a surgical blade for its characterisation. The microstructures of
deposits are analysed using SEM instrument CARL ZEISS EVO 50
installed at IIT Kanpur, India. The SEM is used in combination with
energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.
3. Results and discussions
Figure 3 shows the spark plug deposit mass as obtained exper-
imentally for various gasoline-ethanol blends, respectively, at
an interval of 2–4 h of engine operation. It is observed that
the deposit mass increases rapidly during the first few hours
of engine operation for all the gasoline-ethanol blends. After
about 8–12 h of engine operation, the rate of increase in deposit
mass slows down. In the end, after 24–28 h of engine operation,
the rate of deposit growth decreases close to zero, and deposit
mass reaches to a steady-state value. This happens due to ther-
mal insulating properties of deposits that cause an increase in
deposit surface temperature with material build up. As the sur-
face temperature of deposit increases, the rate of deposit oxi-
dation also increases (Cerit and Soyhan 2013). Initially, the rate
of deposit oxidation is lower than the rate of deposit accumu-
lation. When the rate of deposit oxidation becomes equal to
Figure 2. Spark plug (a) New, (b) with deposits after 28 h of operation.
Figure 3. Mass of spark plug deposits with time for different gasoline-ethanol
blends.
rate of deposit accumulation, an equilibrium level of deposit is
achieved. Huang et al. (1998) found a similar finding for com-
bustion chamber deposits, demonstrating that the thickness of
deposits increases significantly during the first 30 h and subse-
quently stabilises.
Table 3 shows the nature and weight of deposits on the
spark plug as observed after 28 h of engine operation with differ-
ent gasoline-ethanol blends. The spark plug deposits are found
to be more sticky and difficult to remove with an increase in
ethanol percentage. Pal (2011) reported that ethanol blending
increases the solubility of gum in gasoline. This could be the rea-
son for more sticky nature of deposits with E15 fuel. The spark
plug deposit weight is found to be highest for E15 and lowest
for E0. Figures 4–7 show the SEM micrograph of spark plug tip
deposit, at a magnification of 5.00 KX, for the engine operated
with E0, E5, E10 and E15 fuels, respectively. The micrographs
are analysed using ImageJ software. The deposits are found to
have a porous nature with a spongy texture. The morphology
of deposits shows it to be made up of agglomeration of fine
particles. The ImageJ software allows counting the number of
particles in a given area. Figures 8–11 depict the particle size dis-
tribution for the selected unit area of SEM micrographs for E0, E5,
E10, and E15 fuels, respectively. The total number of particles in
the unit area for fuel E0 is 2876, and it decreases as the ethanol
fraction increases, reducing to 1101 particles for fuel E15. The
maximum particle diameter for E0 is 5.71 µm, while it increases
to 13.61 µm for E15. It’s been noticed that as the ethanol fraction
increases, the deposits become more condensed, as evidenced
Table 3. Nature and weight of spark plug deposits formed using different ethanol-
gasoline blends.
Deposit
Fuel weight (g) Deposit nature
E0 (Gasoline) 1.0994 Dry, black & soft
E5 (95% Gasoline + 1.6890 Sticky, dark black & difficult to remove
5% Ethanol)
E10 (90% Gasoline + 2.2432 Sticky, dark black & difficult to remove
10% Ethanol)
E15 (85% Gasoline + 3.1420 Heavy, sticky, dark black & more
15% Ethanol) difficult to remove

Figure 4. SEM image of spark plug deposits formed with Fuel-E0.
Figure 5. SEM image of spark plug deposits formed with Fuel-E5.
Figure 6. SEM image of spark plug deposits formed with Fuel-E10.
by the presence of large size agglomerated particles. The SEM
micrograph of E0 shows that there is only 0.04% (1) particle
with a diameter greater than 5 µm in a unit area. When E15 is
used as a fuel, the particle counts with a diameter greater than
5 µm increase to 2.18% (34 particles). Despite the fact that only
2.18% of the particles in E15 fuel are larger than 5 µm, they cover
approximately 45% of the total deposit area, causing the deposit
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMBIENT ENERGY 5313
Figure 7. SEM image of spark plug deposits formed with Fuel-E15.
Figure 8. Particle size distribution in a unit area of SEM image for fuel E0.
morphology to be more condensed. The morphology of E0, on
the other hand, contains much finer particles, with 2116 particles
having a diameter of less than 1 µm. For fuel E5, E10 and E15 only
1578, 858 and 786 particles lie within this diameter range.
The condensed structure of deposits for ethanol-blended-
gasoline is attributed to the insolvency of precursors and lower
T90 parameter of ethanol-blended-gasoline vis-à-vis pure gaso-
line (Pałuchowska and Jęczmionek 2015; Stepien 2016). The
polar ethanol will not be able to completely dissolve the non-
polar deposit precursors. These precursors act as nuclei for
deposit formation. Before ignition, the deposit precursors are
homogenously dispersed in the liquid fuel as shown in Figure
5314 G. KUSHWAHA ET AL.
Figure 9. Particle size distribution in a unit area of SEM image for fuel E5.
Figure 10. Particle size distribution in a unit area of SEM image for fuel E10.
12(a). According to Xu et al. (2015), the deposit agglomera-
tion depends upon T90 parameter If the surface temperature
is lower than the T90 parameter these deposit precursors will
Figure 11. Particle size distribution in a unit area of SEM image for fuel E15.
flow with the air–fuel mixture and will not adhere to the insu-
lator surface. But after ignition when the temperature of the
surface is higher than T90 distillation temperature, most of the
fuel or lubricant present in the mixture will evaporate leaving the
deposit precursors that adhere to the insulator surface. There-
after, these deposit precursors would undergo agglomeration
process as shown in Figure 12(b). The natures of SEM micro-
graphs shown in Figures 4–7 verify the agglomeration theory of
engine deposits. It appears that, of the two contradictory factors,
one of decreasing T90 parameter with the addition of ethanol,
which supports deposit formation, and the other of decreasing
metal substrate temperature due to the high heat of vaporisa-
tion of ethanol, which opposes deposit formation, the former
dominates. The deposit’s internal microstructure may directly
relate to its intractability and ease of removal. A more graphitic
and condensed microstructure is more impervious to oxidation
and burn-off, and consequently more difficult to remove from
the engine. Hence, it is concluded that spark plugs of engine
running with ethanol-blended-gasoline will fail early or will have
more chances of misfiring in the engine.
The chemical composition of deposits gives information
about possible deposit precursors that may have initiated the
formation of engine deposits. The EDS results of spark plug
deposits formed with different ethanol-gasoline blends have
been presented in Table 4. The chemical elements found in the
deposits consist of main elements like Carbon and Oxygen, the
metal elements like Iron, Zinc, Aluminium, Copper and Nickel
and other elements like Calcium, Phosphorous, Sulphur and
Sodium. The possible source of all the elements is summarised
in Table 4. It is seen that the ‘O’ content in spark plug deposits is
higher when high ethanol fraction fuels (E10 and E15) are used as
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMBIENT ENERGY 5315

Figure 12. (a) Deposit precursors uniformly distributed in air–fuel mixture. (b) Agglomeration of deposit precursors on a metal surface.

Table 4. Chemical composition of spark plug deposits formed with different fuels. oil, additives or fuel itself. Additionally, oxidised hydrocarbon
Weight (%) species and metal elements may also act as the precursors. More-
over, the presence of metals and oxygen in the chemical analysis
Element E0 E5 E10 E15 Source
of deposits increases the probability of the presence of metallic
Zinc (Zn) 15.93 12.47 4.50 7.73 Lubricating oil additive Zinc
ions and the formation of metal oxide. According to Kameoka
dialkyl dithiophosphate
(ZDDP) and Tsuchiya (2006), the presence of metal oxides such as FeO
Phosphorus (P) 17.11 17.58 9.52 9.21 Lubricating oil additive Zinc in deposits at high temperatures increases conductivity and pro-
dialkyl dithiophosphate
motes the possibility of side sparking between the central elec-
(ZDDP)
Sulfur (S) 0.09 0 0 0 Fuel and lubricant additives trode and spark plug housing, which can lead to misfire and
Calcium (Ca) 0 4.12 0.59 0.77 Lubricant additive calcium reduced spark plug life.
salicylate (CaSa)
Aluminium (Al) 0.70 0.16 3.41 0.69 Engine wear
Iron (Fe) 0 1.60 3.04 3.41 Ferrocene present in fuel
for octane enhancement 4. Conclusions
Copper (Cu) 1.41 0 0 0 Center electrode material
Nickel (Ni) 0.64 1.20 0 0.24 Center electrode material The gravimetrical, morphological, and chemical properties of
Sodium (Na) 0 3.29 0 0 Coolant additive
spark plug carbon deposits are investigated in this study to bet-
Oxygen (O) 64.12 58.58 78.94 77.96 Metal oxides
ter understand the effect of ethanol blending in gasoline on
the deposit forming mechanism. According to the gravimetric
compared to low ethanol fraction fuels (E0 and E5). The increase analysis, the mass of spark plug deposits rapidly increases dur-
is attributed to ethanol which carries 34.7% of oxygen by weight ing the first few hours of engine operation. The rate of deposit
in its molecular structure. formation slows over time until a steady-state deposit level is
Further, the percentage of iron (Fe) is also found to be higher reached, i.e. after 24–28 h of engine operation. The steady-state
for high ethanol fraction fuels vis-à-vis low ethanol fraction level mass of deposits is found to increase as the ethanol frac-
fuels. The presence of ‘Fe’ in spark plug deposits is due to the tion increases. For fuel E0, E5, E10, and E15, the deposit mass is
organometallic iron compound ‘Ferrocene’ added to commer- found to be 1.0994, 1.6890, 2.2432, and 3.1420 g, respectively.
cial gasoline as an Octane enhancer and combustion catalyst The increase in deposit mass with increasing ethanol fraction is
(Kameoka and Tsuchiya 2006). Ferrocene, also known as dicy- attributed to a decrease in solvency of precursor and decrease
clopentadienyliron, is made up of two parallel C5 hydrocarbon in T90 parameter of ethanol-blended-gasoline as against pure
ring systems with an iron atom in the middle which is readily sol- gasoline. Alongside that, the morphological results obtained
uble in all hydrocarbons (Schug et al. 1990) It acts as an effective using SEM indicate that the deposits are porous and spongy in
combustion catalyst if dissolved in the fuel at the molecular level nature, consisting of agglomeration of fine particles on the metal
or, at a minimum, dispersed at sub-micrometer size levels. How- surface. The deposit morphology becomes more compact as the
ever, when ethanol is blended with gasoline, the introduction ethanol fraction increases and the size of agglomerated parti-
of hydroxyl group significantly decreases Ferrocene solubility in cles increases. E0 has a maximum particle diameter of 5.71 µm,
fuel (Da̧browski, Misterkiewicz, and Sporzyński 2001). This helps while E15 has a maximum particle diameter of 13.61 µm. The
to explain why high ethanol fraction fuels (E10 and E15) have a chemical analysis shows that the spark plug deposits are pri-
higher percentage of iron (Fe) deposits than low ethanol frac- marily composed of carbon, oxygen, metallic elements such as
tion fuels (E0 and E5). At high temperature conditions, in the iron, zinc, aluminium, copper, and nickel, and non-metallic ele-
presence of unreacted oxygen, the insoluble Ferrocene oxidises ments like calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, and sodium. The per-
to form Iron oxide on spark plug tip. There’s a good probability centage content of ‘O’ and ‘Fe’ in the chemical composition of
that Iron oxide adhered to the spark plug surface act as a pre- spark plug deposits are found to be increasing with ethanol
cursor and helped pave the way for agglomeration of spark plug blending The presence of the metal oxides at high temperature
deposits. Further, the elements Zinc and Phosphorus found in in deposits increases its conductivity and promotes the possi-
EDS results are attributed to lubricating oil additive Zinc dialkyl bility of side sparking between the central electrode and the
dithiophosphate (ZDDP). The presence of Aluminium in EDS spark plug housing, which can lead to misfires and reduced
results is due to engine wear while Copper and Nickel are from spark plug life.
central electrode material. In summary, the results suggest that The effect of ethanol blending on spark plug deposits is
deposit precursors are from the decomposition of lubricating only investigated in this work for lower fractions of ethanol in
5316 G. KUSHWAHA ET AL.
gasoline, i.e. E0, E5, E10, and E15 because the engine used in
the current study would not support higher ethanol blends.
A similar study could be conducted in the future for a higher
ethanol fraction in gasoline, such as E85 or pure ethanol, using
flex-fuel engines. Furthermore, the work only discusses the mor-
phological and chemical characteristics of deposits. In future, the
work could be extended to calculate the properties like thermal
and electrical conductivities of spark plug deposits. Besides that,
there is a need to investigate and search for additives that can
be used with gasoline-ethanol blends to reduce deposits. Such
an additive will assist in taking advantage of ethanol blending
without jeopardising engine performance due to deposits.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
ORCID
Samir Saraswati http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9865-5969
Bireswar Paul http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2889-9594
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