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Hybrid vehicles have been developed for improving efficiency and the consequent reduction of fossil fuels consumption in the transportation sector. The complexity of such vehicles allows for countless architectures, being one of them the range extender concept, which corresponds to an electrically powered vehicle equipped with a small combustion engine to improve the vehicle range. In the literature there is no current consensus whether range extenders should adopt simple engine technology aiming at cost reduction, or should they incorporate complex systems in order to achieve a remarkable thermal efficiency and low emissions. In the context of exploring the advanced options for range extenders, the combustion characterization is a fundamental step, which provides information on combustion behavior for several fuel types under a wide range of combustion modes. That information can both yield useful insights for engine development and provide combustion datasets for engine simulation.

In the last few decades a significant effort has been stablished in the automotive industry as well as in academic community towards increasing the renewable fuels applications in internal combustion engines, such as alcohol and gas derived sources. Meanwhile, turbo charging direct-injection spark-ignition engines have become fundamental features to achieve downsizing purposes, increasing power generation efficiency and attending high restrictive emissions regulations that have being taking place recently. For this study, experimental tests were carried out in a single cylinder research engine considering direct injection (DI) and port fuel injection (PFI) operations with anhydrous ethanol. The aim of this paper is to present a review and conduct further investigation about methodologies applied for imaging post processing considering chemiluminescence technique applied in an optical research engine.

Pressures on vehicle manufacturers to reduce emissions have resulted in an increased interest to improve fuel economy and enable use of fuels developed from renewable sources that can achieve a net reduction in the CO2 output per vehicle. The use of bio-gas fuels in internal combustion engines has become a real alternative to traditional liquid fuels derived from petroleum. To extract the maximum benefits from these emergent fuels through optimized engine design and calibration, a deep understanding of the behavior is necessary. The combustion process of a single cylinder research engine with optical access, four stroke PFI-SI, was experimentally investigated. High spatial resolution cycle resolved digital imaging, in the visible and UV spectral range was used to characterize the flame front propagation.