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This research investigated the effects of ethanol blending with methanol-gasoline as fuels in spark ignition engine and how it affects engine performance and emissions. Four ethanol-methanol-gasoline (GEM) blends were prepared with variable ethanol concentrations (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%) and constant methanol concentration (10%) and denoted as M10, E5M10, E10M10, and E15M10 in reference to each respective alcohol constituents. Physicochemical properties testing revealed that density and kinematic viscosity of GEM fuel blends increases with ethanol concentration. E15M10 has shown the most increase in density and kinematic viscosity with 10.7% and 18.7% increase respectively. In contrast, calorific value decreased as ethanol concentration decreases. E15M10 displayed the lowest calorific value at 16.9% lower than gasoline. Meanwhile, engine performance and emissions test showed that GEM fuels generally possess increased average Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) than pure gasoline. However, average Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) for pure gasoline is lower. E15M10 displayed highest increment of BSFC at 17.2% average increase. Meanwhile, E10M10 displayed the highest improvement in BTE with an average of 9.4% increase. Exhaust emissions indicate that all GEM blends produced increased carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions while carbon monoxide (CO) emissions decreases. E15M10 showed the most reduction in CO emissions with 90.6% decrease while E10M10 has shown the most increased CO2 and NOx emissions with 110% and 6.7 times increase respectively. In conclusion, up to 15% volume of ethanol blending with 10% volume methanol-gasoline was able to improve engine performance and emissions in terms of BTE and CO emissions.

Influence of EGR and intake boost on GCI engine fueled with gasoline-biodiesel blend using early single injection mode was investigated in this study. Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder direct-injection CI engine, with 5% by volume of biodiesel proportion in gasoline fuel blend. The engine control parameters namely EGR rate and intake pressure variation were adjusted to investigate their influences on combustion and emissions of the GCI engine with early single injection mode at 40 oCA BTDC. It is found that changes in EGR rates and intake boosting effect on performance, combustion, and emission of GCI engine with early injection mode.

Efforts to find alternative fuels and reduce emissions of CI engines have been conducted, one of which is the use of diesel hydrogen dual fuel. One of the goals of using hydrogen in dual-fuel combustion systems is to reduce particulate emissions and increase engine power. This study investigates the thermal efficiency and emission characteristics of a diesel-hydrogen dual fuel CI engine at various loads condition. The hydrogen was used as a secondary fuel in a single cylinder 667 cm3 diesel engine. The hydrogen was supplied to intake manifold by fumigation method, and diesel was injected directly into the combustion chamber. The results show that the performance test yielding an increase around 10% in the value of thermal efficiency of diesel engines with the addition of hydrogen either at 2000 or 2500 rpm. Meanwhile, emission analyses show that the addition of hydrogen at 2000 and 2500 rpm lead to the decrease of NOx value up to 43%. Furthermore, the smokeless emissions around 0% per kWh were occurred by hydrogen addition at 2000 and 2500 rpm of engine speeds with load operation under 20 Nm.

A gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine was proposed to be the next generation internal combustion engine for gasoline. The effect of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and intake boosting on combustion and emissions of GCI engine fueled with gasoline-biodiesel blends by partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) combustions are investigated in this study. Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder direct-injection CI engine, with 5% by volume proportion of biodiesel in gasoline fuel blends. Engine control parameters (EGR rate, intake boosting rate, and various injection strategies) were adjusted to investigate their influences on combustion and emissions of this GCI engine. It is found that changes in EGR rate, intake boosting pressure and injection strategies affect on ignition delay, maximum pressure rise rate and thermal efficiency which is closely tied to HC, CO, NOx and smoke emissions, respectively.

The study on gasoline compressed ignition (GCI) engine was conducted in an experiment using biodiesel additive (5% and 20%) into gasoline, compared to neat diesel fuel with single injection strategy. The experiment was performed using a single cylinder direct injection diesel engine, naturally aspirated, 4 valves SOHC and 498 cm3 of displacement volume. The engine was tested at 1200 rpm using 70 MPa of injection pressure, single injection at 40 oCA BTDC, and 800 μs of injection duration. The result showed that the higher biodiesel content in the fuel gives effect to the higher cylinder pressure. The small and high amount of biodiesel in gasoline resulted almost similar character and value of IMEP. The lower biodiesel content in the gasoline fuel was resulted the lower thermal efficiency of the GCI engine. Furthermore, the increasing amount of biodiesel in the gasoline fuel caused decreased THC and CO, however, due to the high oxygen content of biodiesel will make the NOx emission increase.

Efforts have been made to develop efficient and alternative powertrains for internal combustion engines including combustion at low-temperature (LTC) concepts. LTC has been widely studied as a novel combustion mode that offers the possibility to minimize both nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) via enhanced air-fuel mixing and intake charge dilution, resulting in lower peak combustion temperatures. Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a new ignition method related to the extensive classification of combustion at low-temperature approaches. In this method of ignition, a fuel with high evaporation characteristics and low autoignition sensitivity, for instance gasoline, is burned in a high pressure process. Despite many research efforts, there are still many challenges related with GCI performance for compression ignition (CI) engines. Unstable combustion for idle- to low-load operation was observed because of the low reactivity characteristics of gasoline, and this will affect the efficiency and emissions of the engine. This paper contributes a detailed review of several topics associated with GCI engines and the effort to improve its efficiency and emissions, including its potential when using gasoline-biodiesel blends. Some recommendations are proposed to encourage GCI engines improvement and development in the near future.

Fossil fuels as the main energy source of every country now predicted will be ended no more than 40 years. Therefore, alternative fuel such as biofuel has been developed by many countries including Indonesia. Indonesia as one of the highest populated country and has wide areas of agriculture, forest and crop field is potential to be the highest biofuel production in the world. However, after one decade since the Government of Indonesia launched the energy Policy in 2006, appears to be interesting that the biofuels progress in Indonesia seen not well developed. One of the basic weaknesses is the program only applied to the specific area with a high biofuel resource by central government without support by local government. Furthermore, the target of biofuel programs seems to be very high or too ambitious, while the condition of the people still very traditional which can be seen from the lifestyle and their energy consumption. This paper provides in detail a review of several topics related to resource, energy consumption, policy and the research and development activities of biofuel in Indonesia. As a discussion, some recommendation provided to encourage the biofuel development in the near future.

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the performance and emission of spark ignition (SI) engine fuelled with CNG at low and high load condition. This study is the series activity of research, design and development of conversion kit for gas fuelled vehicle in the author laboratory. The SI engine that used in this study is Honda L15A, four cylinders, 1,497 cm 3 using electronic control unit. Three different fuel system namely standard gasoline fuel system, commercially CNG conversion kit and proposed CNG conversion kit designed by Research Centre for Electrical Power and Mechatronics–Indonesian Institute of Sciences, all of them utilized with fuel injection system and electronic control unit were used in this study. The test was conducted on the 25% and 80% throttle opening position with engine speed over 4,800 rpm. The results show that the maximum brake power at 25% throttle opening position of SI engine using commercially CNG conversion kit (19.00 kW) is almost same with SI engine using proposed CNG conversion kit (19.68 kW), while for 80% throttle opening position the maximum brake power of SI engine using proposed CNG conversion kit (38.67 kW) is higher than commercially CNG conversion kit (34.29 kW). The emission of CO and HC at 80% throttle opening position is lower than at 25% throttle opening position for both of SI engine using commercially and proposed CNG conversion kit.

The use of bioethanol as supplementary fuel for diesel engine has widely been used and result a positive effect. This paper shows the performance map of indirect diesel engine fuelled with diesel bioethanol emulsion. Experiment was carried out on two cylinders indirect diesel engine were coupled to eddy current dynamometer. The engine is loaded by the dynamometer, fuel consumption by AVL fuel balance, air consumption by TGS hot wire anemometer, emission analyzer by Horiba Mexa 720 and Sukyoung SY-GA 401, while Okudakoki DSM 240 for smoke level. The experiment is focused on specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and its emissions such as; nitrogen oxides (NO X ), carbon monoxide (CO), and the concentration of the exhaust gas (smoke). Test is conducted on 1,500 rpm, 1,750 rpm and 2,000 rpm with gradual load for every 10 Nm from 0 Nm up to 70 Nm. Various percentages of bioethanol in diesel is tested, start from neat diesel fuel (DE0), diesel fuel with 2.5% bioethanol (DE2.5), diesel duel with 5% of bioethanol (DE5) and DE10 for diesel fuel with 10% of bioethanol with 1% of emulsifier are added. Performance maps are created using software Uniplot. At 83% full load (10.81 kW), the BSFC is reduced up to 2.62% at 1987 rpm on DE10 mixture, while at low rotation (1,481 rpm) DE2.5 mixture will increase fuel consumption up to 4.51% compared to neat diesel (DE0). The result of NO X emissions is inconsistent, but the trends are increasing. Trends for CO emission are reduced, maximum reduction up to 71.43% at DE10 and 1987 rpm. The exhaust gas concentration tends to decrease, maximum reduction up to 65.87% on DE10 mixture, 1,734 rpm and 83% full load operation. The addition of bioethanol up to 10% is tends to improve the combustion process at high speed.

In this study, range extender engine designed should be able to meet the power needs of a power generator of hybrid electrical vehicle that has a minimum of 18 kW. Using this baseline model, the following range extenders will be compared between conventional SI piston engine (Baseline, BsL), engine capacity 1998 cm3, and efficiency-oriented SI piston with engine capacity 999 cm3 and 499 cm3 with 86 mm bore and stroke square gasoline engine in the performance, emission prediction of range extender engine, standard of charge by using engine and vehicle simulation software tools. In AVL Boost simulation software, range extender engine simulated from 1000 to 6000 rpm engine loads. The highest peak engine power brake reached up to 38 kW at 4500 rpm. On the other hand the highest torque achieved in 100 Nm at 3500 rpm. After that using AVL cruise simulation software, the model of range extended electric vehicle in series configuration with main components such as internal combustion engine, generator, electric m...

The experimental investigation of 2nd generation bioethanol derived from EFB of oil-palm blended with gasoline for 10, 20, 25% by volume and pure gasoline were conducted on performance and exhaust emission tests of SI engine. A four stroke, four cylinders, programmed fuel injection (PGMFI), 16 valves variable valve timing and electronic lift control (VTEC), single overhead camshaft (SOHC), and 1,497 cm3 SI engine (Honda/L15A) was used in this investigation. Engine performance test was carried out for brake torque, power, and fuel consumption. The exhaust emission was analyzed for carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC). The engine was operated on speed range from1,500 until 4,500 rev/min with 85% throttle opening position. The results showed that the highest brake torque of bioethanol blends achieved by 10% bioethanol content at 3,000 to 4,500 rpm, the brake power was greater than pure gasoline at 3,500 to 4,500 rpm for 10% bioethanol, and bioethanol-gasoline blends of 10 and 20% resulted greater bsfc than pure gasoline at low speed from 1,500 to 3,500 rpm. The trend of CO and HC emissions tended to decrease when the engine speed increased.

Modification of combustion system from indirect injection (IDI) to direct injection (DI) was carried out on the two cylinder diesel engine, followed with tests for performance and emission. The modification from IDI to DI was conducted on a two cylinder diesel engine by removing the pre-chamber from the inside of the cylinder head, replacing the injector and its position to the top of the combustion chamber directly and also replacing the original piston with a piston that has a bowl on the crown. Performance and emission tests were conducted on 1,500 rpm with loads that vary from 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, to 60 Nm. The investigation results of the diesel engine modification from IDI to DI showed several interesting phenomena. Further research is needed in order to increase the engine performance and reduce its emission.

An experiment on the application of diesel and ethanol blends as fuel in diesel engine was carried out at various engine loads and ethanol percentages. The experiments were performed using solar, E2.5%, E5%, E7.5%, and E10% ethanol-diesel blends and 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 Nm engine loads. Several engine parameters i.e. power, brake specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, the exhaust gas temperature, and lubricating oil temperature were investigated. As a complement of the experiment, the exhaust emission characteristic of CO, HC and smoke were also investigated. The results indicate that the engine power and the indicated mean effective pressure increase with increasing of ethanol percentage. The brake specific fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperature decrease, meanwhile the lubricating oil temperature increase with increasing the ethanol content. From the experiments, as the increase of ethanol percentage content, the emission of CO, HC and smoke decrease.

The experiment was conducted on a conventional direct injection diesel engine. Performance test was carried out to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of a conventional diesel engine that operates on ethanol-diesel blends. The test procedure was performed by coupling the diesel engine on the eddy current dynamometer. Fuel consumption was measured using the AVL Fuel Balance, and a hotwire anemometer was used to measure the air consumption. Some of the emission test devices were mounted on the exhaust pipe. The test of fuel variations started from 100% diesel fuel (D100) to 2.5% (DE2.5), 5% (DE5), 7.5% (DE7.5), and 10% (DE10) ethanol additions. Performance test was conducted at 1500 rpm with load variations from 0 to 60 Nm by increasing the load on each level by 10 Nm. The addition of 5% ethanol to diesel (DE5) increased the average pressure of combustion chamber indication to 48% as well as reduced the specific fuel consumption to 9.5%. There were better exhaust emission characteristics at this mixture ratio than diesel engine which used pure diesel fuel (D100), the reduction of CO to 37%, HC to 44% and opacity to 15.9%.

Surface roughness and area play important role especially in deposition and reaction of the catalyst in the catalytic converter substrate. The aim of this paper is to show the modification of surface roughness and area of FeCrAl substrate for catalytic converter using ultrasonic method. The method was conducted by agitating the FeCrAl in 10 minutes 35 kHz ultrasonic cleaning bath. The surface roughness, morphology, and chemical components of FeCrAl catalytic converter substrate after ultrasonic treatment were analyzed using atomic force microscope (AFM) and examined with scanning electron microscope (SEM) in combination with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The ultrasonic treatment assisted with Al2O3 powders successfully increased the roughness and surface area of FeCrAl better than SiC powders.

The cheap nickel oxide (NiO) is a potential catalyst candidate to replace the expensive available platinum group metals (PGM). However, the current methods to adhere the NiO powder on the metallic substrates are complicated. Therefore, this work explored the development of nickel oxide using nickel (Ni) on FeCrAl substrate through the combination of nickel electroplating and oxidation process for catalytic converter application. The approach was started with assessment of various nickel electroplating process based on the weight gain during oxidation. Then, the next experiment used the best process in which the pre-treatment using the solution of SiC and/or Al2O3 in methanol. The specimens then were carried out to short term oxidation process using thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) at 1000 oC. Meanwhile, the long term oxidation process was conducted using an automatic furnace at 900, 1000 and 1100 oC. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used for surface analysis in nanometer range scale. Meanwhile, roughness test was used for roughness measurement analysis in micrometer range scale. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) attached with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) were used for surface and cross section morphology analysis. The specimen of FeCrAl treated using ultrasonic prior to nickel electroplating showed the lowest weight gain during oxidation. The surface area of specimens increased after ultrasonic treatment. The electroplating process improved the high temperature oxidation resistance. In short term oxidation process indicated that the ultrasonic with SiC provided the lower parabolic rate constant (kp) and the Al2O3 and NiO layers were also occurred. The Ni layer was totally disappeared and converted to NiO layer on FeCrAl surface after long term oxidation process. From this work, the ultrasonic treatment prior to nickel electroplating was the best method to adhere NiO on FeCrAl substrate.

Exhaust emission is one of the kind emission have contribute to the greenhouse effect in the world. Ethanol is one of the best tools to fight air pollution from vehicles. From its biodegradable nature to reductions in greenhouse gas and tailpipe emissions, ethanol provides a tool to address environmental concerns without requiring an entirely new way for goods and people to get from one place to another. Ethanol contains 35% oxygen and with adding oxygen to fuel results in more complete fuel combustion, reducing harmful tailpipe emissions. This paper addresses the possibility study of ethanol percentage to changing of performance and exhaust emissions for Diesel Engine using Virtual Engine Simulation Tool AVL Boost. In this study the blend formulation between Ethanol and Diesel Fuel were E0, E2.5, E5, E7.5 and E 10. The performance of diesel engine simulated in 1,000-1,500 rpm with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 Nm engine loads. The direct blending of ethanol and diesel fuel has advantages reducing exhaust emissions CO, Soot and NOx percentages. The engine power break of pure diesel is slightly lower than those of E2.5-E10, especially for speed above than 1400 rpm. The simulation work with the same results compare to the experiments can reduce the cost of research.

Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or waste cooking oil. It is safe, biodegradable, and produces less air pollutants than petroleum-based diesel. This paper presents the sonochemistry approach to achieve short biodiesel reaction time from jatropha curcas oil by clamp on tubular reactor. The effect of 21 mm, 60 mm diameter of clamp on tubular reactor and conventional stirring method to removing free fatty acid (FFA) and optimizing time of reaction at the acid catalyzed esterification were observed. Transesterification of jatropha curcas oil with methanol, in the sodium hydroxide as a catalyst was investigated using clamp on tubular reactor. The effect of different operating parameter such as methanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration to reach optimum condition was studied. The influence of output power on water to oil concentration and time of reaction in the purification were investigated. In the esterification process, the high FFA concentration was removed lower 1% by tube of diameter 60 mm at 5 minutes time of reaction. The optimum condition of the transesterification process was achieved at molar ratios of methanol to oil of 7:1, catalyst concentration of 1%, time of reaction of 5 minutes. On the other hand the optimal condition of the purification process at water concentration of 10% (v/v), power output of 240 w, time of reaction of 5 minutes was obtained. Compared with conventional stirring method, the time of esterification reaction by clamp on tubular reactor reduces until 96%, while for the transesterification reaction reduces until 83%.