The Performance of a Spark Ignition Engine using 92 RON Gasoline with Varying Blends of Bioethanol (E40, E50, E60) Measured using a Dynamometer Test

Indonesia’s increasing energy dependence on fossil fuels amid the country’s declining petroleum reserves requires the development of an effective solution in the form of renewable fuels such as fuel-grade bioethanol. This study investigated a potential way of reducing dependence on fossil fuels for motorcycle engines by using fuel-grade bioethanol blended with gasoline to produce a novel marketable fuel type. The present paper focuses on the effect of various fuel blends >40% ethanol on the performance of a spark ignition (SI) engine. This study used a standard, off-the-shelf, 150cc SI engine as the test engine, running on RON 92 gasoline with varying mixtures of bioethanol (40% (E40); 50% (E50); and 60% (E60)), connected to a dynamometer to obtain performance data (torque, power, and specific fuel consumption) and emission data (hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide). The results showed that E60 represented the optimum mixture as it produced the highest torque, power and specific fuel consumption optimum used E50.

Bioethanol; Engine dyno test; Performance; Renewable energy

Energy dependence on fossil fuels and the associated environmental problems this causes are becoming an increasing cause for concern. In the transportation sector, one of the most common environmental problems of burning fossil fuels in internal combustion engines is the air pollution produced by combustion products (De Simio et al., 2012). Motorcycles produce emissions that contain CO₂, HC, CO, and NO_x; however, these emissions can be reduced with the use of blended bioethanol  fuels (Wibowo et al., 2020). One of the options available to address this task is substituting fossil fuels with renewable fuels such as bioethanol. The characteristics of gasoline can be altered using blended bioethanol; for example, boiling temperature points (distillation), density, Reid vapour pressure (RVP), and research octane number (RON) (Kheiralla et al., 2011; Kheiralla et al., 2012).

In recent years, ethanol-based fuels have been favored because their physical properties and characteristics share many similarities with gasoline. Bioethanol is produced  from  biomass (Hossain et al., 2017) and  provides  a  range  of  benefits,  such as mixing with gasoline to increase the fuel’s RON rating. An inadequate RON value causes knocking in SI engines, which can be overcome by using a fuel with a higher RON value to reduce knocking (Adian et al., 2019). However, despite its merits in improving RON, bioethanol suffers from having a lower Low Heating Value (LHV) than gasoline, which causes the requirement for a higher air-fuel ratio, resulting in higher fuel consumption (Adian et al., 2020). Market-available gasoline-blend fuels include (ethanol) E10 for conventional engines, E85 for use in flex-fuel vehicles (Kim and Dale, 2006; Petrolia et al., 2010) and a 20% ethanol blend for use in unmodified vehicles (Tibaquirá et al., 2018). The present study investigates a bioethanol fuel blend of 40–60% in an unmodified test engine. 

        Specifically, the present study investigates the use of Indonesian-specification RON 92 gasoline (content: 99,5%) with varying blends of bioethanol (namely, 40% (E40), 50% (E50), and 60% (E60)) in terms of the effect characteristics, performance, and emission results produced using a standard 150cc SI motorcycle engine.

The results show the outcomes of using varying blends of bioethanol in RON 92 gasoline together with their effects on performance and emissions. In terms of performance, optimal torque and power were achieved using the E60 blend, which suggests that both torque and power benefit from the use of a higher percentage of bioethanol in the fuel mixture. For specific fuel consumption, the optimal value was obtained using the E50 blend. In terms of emissions, optimal hydrocarbon emissions were achieved using the E50 mixture while carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions were optimized using the E60 mixture.

    This research was supported by PUTI grant on contract number: NKB-700/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2020, Universitas Indonesia.

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