Electrically heated catalyst enabling pollutants reduction in hybrid vehicles fueled with ethanol

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have the potential of combining the benefits of a renewable electric mix with biofuels. More recently, PHEV have been designed to be equipped with a small combustion engine known as range extender (RE), thus allowing an improvement in vehicle’s range while con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of engine research 2024-05, Vol.25 (5), p.850-863
Main Authors: Falcão Weissinger, Frederico, Henrique Rufino, Caio, Mendoza, Alexander Peñaranda, Martelli, André Luiz, Coelho, Eugênio, Bigliardi, Vincent, Teixeira Lacava, Pedro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biofuels
Calibration
Catalysts
Catalytic converters
Emissions
Enthalpy
Ethanol
Gasoline
Hybrid electric vehicles
Light duty vehicles
Methane
Nitrogen oxides
Organic compounds
Pollutants
Vaporization
Vehicles
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Summary:Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have the potential of combining the benefits of a renewable electric mix with biofuels. More recently, PHEV have been designed to be equipped with a small combustion engine known as range extender (RE), thus allowing an improvement in vehicle’s range while converting fuel energy through a highly efficient path. Despite being a convenient strategy for decarbonizing light vehicles, the intermittent operation of the engine may create issues regarding the catalytic conversion of pollutants, yielding an increase in local harmful emissions. This drawback may be intensified depending on the used fuel. Hydrous ethanol is a promising alternative for gasoline and is already available in some countries, such as Brazil. However, ethanol has a great enthalpy of vaporization and it results in a charge cooling, affecting the catalyst warm-up and making the intermittent operation with ethanol more challenging. Hence, this study was motivated by the need of improving the catalytic efficiency of flexfuel RE operating with both gasoline and hydrous ethanol. Thus, a calibration was firstly performed to shorten the warm-up phase with ethanol. Then, an electrical heater was employed for accelerated catalyst heating, further improving emissions from ethanol operation, aiming at attaining future emissions regulations. Experimental tests were conducted in a vehicle under FTP72 cycle using a chassis dynamometer. The calibration adjustments resulted in a warm-up phase for ethanol
ISSN:1468-0874
2041-3149
DOI:10.1177/14680874231214010