ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR I.C. ENGINE (ETHANOL)BY: BHATIA SUKHVINDER

WHAT ARE ALTERNATIVE FUELS....? Also known as non-conventional or

advanced fuels. These are materials or substances that

can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels.

Some well known alternative fuels are biodiesel, alcohol, chemically stored electricity, hydrogen, non-fossil methane, non-fossil natural gas, vegetable oil & biomass.....

WHY ALTERNATIVE FUELS....?In this century, it is believed that crude

oil and petroleum products will become very scarce and costly.

Day-to-day, fuel economy of engines is getting improved and will continue to improve. However, enormous increase in number of vehicles has started dictating the demand for fuel.

With increased use and depletion of fossil fuels, alternative fuel technology will become more common in the coming decades.

Because of the high cost of petroleum products, energy security , emission problems some developing countries are trying to use alternate fuels for their vehicles.

ALCOHOL AS FUEL.... Liquid fuels are preferred for IC engines

because they are easy to store and have reasonably good calorific value. The main alternative is the alcohol.

Alcohols are attractive alternate fuels because they can be obtained from both natural and manufactured sources. Methanol and ethanol are two kinds of alcohols that seem most promising.

ETHANOL.... Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel made from

corn, wheat, barley, trees, grass, etc. Ethanol is renewable because it comes

from fermenting crops. Ethanol lowers carbon monoxide emissions. Since ethanol can be made from a wide

variety of plant life, it is very abundant and with depleting petroleum reserves, is a promising alternative.

HOW IT IS MADE....? Historically made from corn and other starch sources or

from natural sugars by fermentation. Common sources include rice, potato, cassava – plus

corn and other grains. Manufacturing process was very energy-intensive, but is

now less so in most modern plants, due to advances in distillation technology.

Ethanol is commercially produced using either a wet mill or dry mill process.Wet milling involves separating the grain kernel into its component parts (germ, fiber, protein, and starch) prior to fermentation. The dry mill process is the process where the entire grain kernel is ground into flour.

HOW ABOUT ETHANOL AS FUEL

E85.... E85 is an alcohol fuel mixture of 85% ethanol and

15% gasoline, by volume. Ethanol derived from crops (bioethanol) is a biofuel.E85 as a fuel is widely used in Sweden and is becoming increasingly common in the United States, mainly in the Midwest where corn is a major crop and is the primary source material for ethanol fuel production.

E85 is usually used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of ethanol. Such flexible-fuel engines are designed to run on any mixture of gasoline or ethanol with up to 85% ethanol by volume.

E85 is the blend of E10/E15 to reduce pollution by oxidation.

Power Making Fuel Characteristics

1.Octane Rating [MON] 2.Burning Rate 3.Latent Heat of Vaporization [kJ/kg] 4.Energy Value [MJ/kg]

FUMIGATION.... Fumigation is a method by which

alcohol is introduced into the engine by carbureting.

Vaporizing or injecting the ethanol into the intake air stream. This requires the addition of a carburetor, vaporizer or injector, along with a separate fuel tank, lines and controls.

ADVANTAGES.... It is a high octane fuel, so it can be used

efficiently for higher compression ratios. It produces less overall emissions compared to

gasoline. It gives higher pressure and more power in the

expansion stroke. It has high latent heat of vaporization which

results in a cooler intake process. This raises the volumetric efficiency of the engine and reduces the required work input in the compression stroke.

DISADVANTAGES.... The calorific value of the fuel is less. With equal thermal efficiency and similar

engine output usage, twice as much fuel would have to be purchased.

Alcohol is much more corrosive than gasoline on copper, brass, aluminum, rubber, and many plastics.

It has poor cold weather starting characteristics due to low vapor pressure and evaporation.

APPLICATIONS.... BRAZIL:World leader in production and

export of ethanol. Ethanol produced per day equivalent to 200,000 barrels of gasoline.

USA:E85 sells cheaper than gasoline. Currently production aimed at 4.5 Billion gallons/yr.

INDIA :Sources of ethanol-Sugarcane, Molasses & Agricultural waste.Low average cost of Rs.18/litre projected, Annual production capacity of 1.5 Billion litres

CONCLUSION.... Reducing fossil fuels in the near

future would be a great loss to mankind if we are not able to find out any alternative for it and I found alcohol to be effective as it can be produced easily and the flexible fuel vehicle will be proved to be of great advantage.

REFERENCES WIKIPEDIA.COM I.C. ENGINES, TATA MCGRAW HILL. HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM

THANKING YOUCLEAN UP YOUR MESS SAYS MOTHER NATURE.