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Methanol, a fuel obtainable through the capture and conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), has garnered attention as a suitable alternative fuel for gasoline. Methanol-gasoline blends, characterized by their high-octane rating, commendable performance, and reduced carbon emissions, present themselves as promising alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. In the present study, a comprehensive comparative analysis was conducted to assess the performance and emissions characteristics of unmodified vehicles utilizing methanol blends at lower concentrations, ranging up to 30%, in gasoline. The research focused on two distinct classes of vehicles commonly found on the roads of India: those compliant with BS-IV (Euro IV) and BS-VI (Euro VI) emission standards. Experimental evaluations were carried out on a chassis dynamometer, with the vehicles subjected to the Worldwide Harmonized Motorcycle Test Cycle (WMTC) and Wide open throttle (WOT) driving tests.

The current market demand and ever tightening global legislation mandate automotive OEMs to improve vehicle fuel consumption and reduce carbon based emissions. One approach to do so is by downsizing of gasoline engines. The reduced engine displacement causes lesser pumping and frictional losses and lower gas to wall heat transfer making engine more efficient. While downsizing an engine can enhance fuel economy it also brings down the power output. The power lost can be compensated by integrating a turbocharger to the engine to increase the boost pressure however, this again may create an abnormal combustion event known as low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI). The increase of pressure and temperature inside the combustion chamber at high loads also leads to a pre-ignition induced super knock and in severe cases, LSPI leads to broken piston rings, damaged pistons and bent connecting rods.

In view of the depletion of energy and environmental pollution, dual fuel technology has caught the attention of researchers as a viable technology keeping in mind the increased availability of fuels like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). It is an ecologically friendly technology due to lower particulate matter (PM) and smoke emissions and retains the efficiency of diesel combustion. Generally, dual fuel technology has been prevalent for large engines like marine, locomotive and stationary engines. However, its use for automotive engines has been limited in the past due to constraints of the limited supply of alternative fuels. CNG is a practical fuel under dual-fuel mode operation, with varying degree of success. The induction method prevents a premixed natural gas-air mixture, minimizes the volumetric efficiency and results in a loss of power at higher speeds.

In the current scenario of global emissions, growing demand for petroleum fuels and highly volatile crude prices, the current usage of petroleum fuel must be curbed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to reduce environmental pollution several alternative fuels are being explored. Butanol is one of the potential alternative fuels that can be used in IC engines in the same way of conventional fuels for reducing conventional fuels. An experimental study was conducted to establish the impact of n-butanol as a blending component for gasoline fuel in passenger car on chassis dynamometer. Commercial gasoline meeting Euro-IV fuel standards was used as the base fuel while n-butanol was used as the blending component in the ratio of 5, 10 & 20% by volume. The vehicle was tested on chassis dynamometer for fuel evaluation in respect of fuel economy, regulated and un-regulation emissions under standard driving cycle of NEDC.

Butanol is one of the potential alternative fuels that can be used in IC engines in the same way as gasoline. This paper investigates the application of butanol as a blending component for gasoline fuel used in single cylinder four stroke motorcycle engine. Different blending ratio of 5, 10, 20 & 30% butanol-gasoline prepared were used for the study. The motorcycle engine tested on the chassis dynamometer had displacement of 100 cm3. The performance testing under steady state were simulated by running the vehicle on road load simulation and wide open throttle test modes at steady speeds of 40, 50, 60 and 70 km/h. The fuels were also examined using transient Indian Driving Cycle. The test results indicated that butanol-gasoline blended fuel can be a promising alternate for automotive application.

Human health is the driving force for setting the Ambient Air Quality Standards for the country. As per Auto Fuel Policy released by Govt. of India, Air Quality Monitoring and Source Apportionment Studies were initiated in six cities. Apart from determining emission data from other sources, the assessment of automotive emission inventory was done by conducting the emission testing on vehicles of different categories and vintages following a driving cycle. India has been following Modified Indian Driving Cycle (MIDC) adopted from European driving cycle which may not give a realistic assessment of vehicular emissions in laboratory as compared to on-road emissions. The variation could be due to different traffic density, land-use patterns, road infrastructure and traffic management encountered in India as compared to Europe. This paper presents the evolution of Driving Cycle developed for passenger cars in Delhi.

Biodiesel derived from non-edible vegetable oils/tree borne oils hold potential for meeting India's future energy needs by part substitution of Diesel Fuel. This paper investigates performance of 5% blend of commercially available biodiesel (B5) in diesel as fuel for heavy duty vehicles. The test fuel was evaluated on buses with different aspiration technologies viz. naturally aspirated and turbo charged, and the same was compared with neat commercial diesel under different operating conditions like driving cycle, road load simulation (RLS) and wide open throttle (WOT) on chassis dynamometer for power, fuel economy, smoke and soot particle number concentration. Fuel economy was observed to be comparable with B5 in naturally aspirated bus while better fuel economy was observed in case of Turbo charged bus with B5. However, there was a marginal drop in the WOT power (vehicle) with B5 fuel in naturally aspirated bus while the drop was higher with Turbo charged bus.

Part substitution of alcohol in gasoline alters the composition and combustion characteristics leading to different particulates as emitted by individual fuel. This paper presents the test work done on characterisation of particulate number concentration emitted from four stroke engine powered two wheeler with neat Euro III gasoline and its blend with ethanol (5, 10, 20 & 30 %) using Electrical Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI). The characterisation of particulates was carried out under different operating conditions viz. Indian Driving Cycle (IDC), Road Load Simulation (RLS) and Wide Open Throttle (WOT) conditions on Chassis Dynamometer with the test fuels. It was observed from the study that for all the test fuels, the number concentration increases as the particulate size reduces. Further, it was observed that addition of ethanol in neat Euro III gasoline has reduced the particulate number concentration both in transient and steady speed conditions.