Assessing the Impacts of Ethanol and Isobutanol on Gaseous and Particulate Emissions from Flexible Fuel Vehicles

This study investigated the effects of higher ethanol blends and an isobutanol blend on the criteria emissions, fuel economy, gaseous toxic pollutants, and particulate emissions from two flexible-fuel vehicles equipped with spark ignition engines, with one wall-guided direct injection and one port f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2014-12, Vol.48 (23), p.14016-14024
Main Authors: Karavalakis, Georgios, Short, Daniel, Russell, Robert L, Jung, Heejung, Johnson, Kent C, Asa-Awuku, Akua, Durbin, Thomas D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Pollutants - chemistry
Applied sciences
Atmospheric pollution
Butanols - chemistry
Carbon Monoxide - analysis
Conservation of Energy Resources
Emissions
Ethanol
Ethanol - chemistry
Exact sciences and technology
Gases
Gasoline - analysis
Greenhouse Effect
Hydrocarbons
Hydrocarbons - analysis
Impact analysis
Nitrogen Oxides - analysis
Particulate Matter - analysis
Pollutants
Pollution
Pollution sources. Measurement results
Soot
Transports
Vehicle Emissions - analysis
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Summary:This study investigated the effects of higher ethanol blends and an isobutanol blend on the criteria emissions, fuel economy, gaseous toxic pollutants, and particulate emissions from two flexible-fuel vehicles equipped with spark ignition engines, with one wall-guided direct injection and one port fuel injection configuration. Both vehicles were tested over triplicate Federal Test Procedure (FTP) and Unified Cycles (UC) using a chassis dynamometer. Emissions of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) showed some statistically significant reductions with higher alcohol fuels, while total hydrocarbons (THC) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) did not show strong fuel effects. Acetaldehyde emissions exhibited sharp increases with higher ethanol blends for both vehicles, whereas butyraldehyde emissions showed higher emissions for the butanol blend relative to the ethanol blends at a statistically significant level. Particulate matter (PM) mass, number, and soot mass emissions showed strong reductions with increasing alcohol content in gasoline. Particulate emissions were found to be clearly influenced by certain fuel parameters including oxygen content, hydrogen content, and aromatics content.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es5034316