Cold start characteristics of an ethanol-fuelled engine with heated intake air and fuel

José Ricardo Sodré*, Luis Carlos Monteiro Sales

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The conventional cold start system of flexible fuel engines introduces gasoline in the intake system when the vehicle is fuelled with hydrous ethanol or with high ethanol content gasoline-ethanol blends. The system is necessary to allow for ignition of the fuel-air mixture under low temperatures due to the high ethanol evaporation temperature, in comparison with gasoline. This works presents a new cold start system for flexible fuel engines with heating of intake air and ethanol injector. The removal of the gasoline reservoir for cold start is the main benefit of the new system, and it is an awaited evolution of flexible fuel engines. The experimental results demonstrate that the new system provides hydrous ethanol-fuelled engine start in less than 2 s under temperatures as low as 0 °C.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)198-201
Number of pages4
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Volume40
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2012

Keywords

  • Cold Start
  • Ethanol
  • Internal Combustion Engines

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