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Last July, it might have seemed surprising when the government announced plans to raise corporate average fuel economy standards to 54.5 MPG by 2025.
However, across the map, from Detroit to Japan, the automotive industry said the seemingly impossible MPG number was an attainable goal. The bulk of the heavy lifting to get there will be accomplished by utilizing high-efficiency internal combustion engines that deliver lower C02 emissions per mile.
One hurdle to address is these high-efficiency engines need higher-octane fuel to realize their full fuel efficiency and performance potential. Making higher octane gasoline at the refinery is an expensive process, which can be passed on to the consumer.
“Could a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly source of octane be found in ethanol? The answer is a resounding, ‘yes,’ according to the fuel testing results that were just released,” a news release from ICM Inc. stated.
The fuel research was conducted by AVL, a global industry leader for the development of powertrain systems with internal combustion engines, instrumentation and test systems.
The first phase of fuel testing began in January 2011 and ended in December 2011; the fuel testing study was funded in part by ICM, the same company working on a gasifier project in Harvey County.
A new way to test fuel
“Recognizing ethanol’s full octane value required some practical thinking about how ethanol is added to fuel, and to show how ethanol performs in new direct-injection engines,” the news release stated. The AVL tests incorporated multiple gasoline base fuels, various compression ratios and several automotive fuel systems to demonstrate ethanol’s performance.
“One of the surprising results revealed in this testing was the additional benefits of ethanol’s favorable octane sensitivity,” a news release stated. By plotting both ethanol’s chemical octane and sensitivity benefits along with the cooling effect, test results showed ethanol offers twice the octane potential. The focus of testing was to evaluate the various fuel blends along a range of knock limit operation rather than just evaluating one set point as is done today.
“Until now, most testing of ethanol allowed match blending, and the base gasoline varied each time ethanol was added — which yielded inconsistent results due to variability of the gasoline fuel,” ICM’s Steve Vander Griend said in a news release.
“As an effect of this particular testing approach, it limits the ability for results to show increased performance of ethanol. This new testing data has proven to be a great tool to illustrate how much performance can be achieved by simply adding ethanol to gasoline. We are seeing a significantly higher value for ethanol and use of intermediate blends to support the changing needs of the automakers and the new fuel efficiency standards that have been issued.”
Last July, it might have seemed surprising when the government announced plans to raise corporate average fuel economy standards to 54.5 MPG by 2025.
However, across the map, from Detroit to Japan, the automotive industry said the seemingly impossible MPG number was an attainable goal. The bulk of the heavy lifting to get there will be accomplished by utilizing high-efficiency internal combustion engines that deliver lower C02 emissions per mile.
One hurdle to address is these high-efficiency engines need higher-octane fuel to realize their full fuel efficiency and performance potential. Making higher octane gasoline at the refinery is an expensive process, which can be passed on to the consumer.
“Could a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly source of octane be found in ethanol? The answer is a resounding, ‘yes,’ according to the fuel testing results that were just released,” a news release from ICM Inc. stated.
The fuel research was conducted by AVL, a global industry leader for the development of powertrain systems with internal combustion engines, instrumentation and test systems.
The first phase of fuel testing began in January 2011 and ended in December 2011; the fuel testing study was funded in part by ICM, the same company working on a gasifier project in Harvey County.
A new way to test fuel
“Recognizing ethanol’s full octane value required some practical thinking about how ethanol is added to fuel, and to show how ethanol performs in new direct-injection engines,” the news release stated. The AVL tests incorporated multiple gasoline base fuels, various compression ratios and several automotive fuel systems to demonstrate ethanol’s performance.
“One of the surprising results revealed in this testing was the additional benefits of ethanol’s favorable octane sensitivity,” a news release stated. By plotting both ethanol’s chemical octane and sensitivity benefits along with the cooling effect, test results showed ethanol offers twice the octane potential. The focus of testing was to evaluate the various fuel blends along a range of knock limit operation rather than just evaluating one set point as is done today.
“Until now, most testing of ethanol allowed match blending, and the base gasoline varied each time ethanol was added — which yielded inconsistent results due to variability of the gasoline fuel,” ICM’s Steve Vander Griend said in a news release.
“As an effect of this particular testing approach, it limits the ability for results to show increased performance of ethanol. This new testing data has proven to be a great tool to illustrate how much performance can be achieved by simply adding ethanol to gasoline. We are seeing a significantly higher value for ethanol and use of intermediate blends to support the changing needs of the automakers and the new fuel efficiency standards that have been issued.”
