Compared with regular diesel, the energy content of diesohol is only 60%, i.e. fuel cost per mile is 1/0.6=1.6 times higher! All you get is lower PM, all other emissions go up. IMHO, ethanol should be reserved for spark ignition engines. There is no law against putting one of those in a commercial vehicle.

If you want to clean up the PM emissions of older trucks, use a biodiesel blend. For B100, the MPG penalty is only 5% and PM goes down 50%. Most US trucks can handle B20 without significant modifications to the fuel system. Note: tests have shown that the relative distribution of PM sizes is essentially the same for biodiesel as for the mineral type, so there is no significant shift toward smaller (more dangerous) particles.

Other options such as DME and xTL are even better in all emission components except NOx. That is determined by the fresh charge temperature, EGR rate, compression ratio and combustion concept and, changes little with fuel composition.

All legacy diesel vehicles benefit from retrofit DPFs to some extent, but for many models they are not available.

Just an errant musing, but I wonder if this process would work with Butenol instead of Ethanol? That would close the gap as far as energy density is concerned. Ok, fine - I know biomass to Butenol isn't as well known, or as popular - and the yield per bushel of corn is considerably less; but isn't this why we pay scientist - to do reserch?

Just a thought.
Cosmo

Good grief, those Scania diesehol engines run on a 28:1 compression ratio!?

Can anyone say how they perform from a thermal efficiency point of view? (must be >50% ?)

Clett -

For more information, please contact Urban Wästljung
Public and Environmental Affairs
tel. +46 70 5371619
email urban.wastljung@scania.com

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Even very large bore two-stroke engines designed for quasi-stationary operation at a specfic, low rotational speed can only get to 52-53% (GE Jenbacher, MAN/Hyundai). HDV engines typically top out at 44-45%, passenger car diesels at 40-41%. In part load and during transient, fuel consumption is of course higher.

Running a compression ratio of 28:1 means the fresh charge becomes extremely hot, just what you need for a high octane (= low cetane) fuel like ethanol to ignite quickly in a diesel process. However, you can no longer approximate isochoric combustion - the mechanical stress would simply be too high.

Stretching the combustion period further into the downstroke limits the peak pressure, at the expense of nominal thermodynamic efficiency (at the piston crown). That said, effective efficiency (at he crankshaft) depends on various losses, and those will be relatively smaller due to the elevated BMEP.

Rafael,
Scania claims their ethanol diesels have lower NOx emissions as well. And lower PM emissions is a really big win in a city bus.

Has anyone thought of blending ethanol/butanol with biodiesel?

To answer some questions about this Article. This product is not E95. This was put out Yesterday by the company.

XcelPlus International Inc. (PINKSHEETS: XLPI) recently announced that it had secured exclusive world-wide production and distribution rights for Diesenol(TM) an ethanol-based substitute for traditional diesel and BioDiesel fuel, and FlexTek bi-fuel converter for gasoline powered vehicles. Due to some confusion, XcelPlus would like to clarify some points about Diesenol, which is a renewable and environmentally friendly replacement for Diesel and BioDiesel fuels.

Diesenol is NOT the E95 fuel tested in the United States in the early 1990's. E95 is a blend of 95 percent ethanol and 5 percent gasoline and was shown to have many problems. E95 required special equipment for cold starting, as well as higher compression for combustion. Test drivers in Hennepin County Minnesota reported decreased power and reliability problems including fuel injector clogging when using the ethanol/gasoline blend.

Diesenol is NOT a blend of diesel fuel and gasoline. Diesenol is a blend of ethanol and a specially engineered proprietary chemical. The chemical additive was designed specifically to provide combustion and to maintain the integrity of the injector system. Diesenol has better cold start characteristics than conventional diesel fuel and does not require any special equipment or fittings. Diesenol is designed to combust at the same compression as ordinary diesel fuel. Field tests of Diesenol showed none of the problems associated with "E95": Trucks running on Diesenol had more power, better torque curves and no injector failures. The test vehicles were city buses and trailer trucks, each of which logged over 400,000 Kilometers of use with Diesenol fuel.

According to Mr. Bill R. Smith, President of XcelPlus, "While petrol based fuel prices have been steadily increasing, ethanol production technology has been rapidly moving forward. This new fuel economy promises to make Diesenol an economically viable replacement for both Diesel and BioDiesel. In addition to consumer sales, we are currently advancing our marketing plan to offer complete Ethanol solutions to cities and private fleets which will include: Local cellulosic ethanol production to turn waste into inexpensive ethanol; Diesenol fuel packages which will use the cellulosic ethanol to power vehicles, clean emissions and extend engine life; chemical engine treatments to raise fuel economy; and FlexTek technology to convert existing gasoline powered vehicles to run on ethanol."

XcelPlus Global Holdings Inc. now wholly owns both the proprietary formulation for Diesenol production as well as full and complete rights to FlexTek technology

Hii,
I am dhipram doing dip in final sem automobile eng in India.I have mad a machine of Infinity Mileage,it dose not requred any outer source like as petrol,diesel,solerenergy as well as outer electric source also.But it can run by devaloping its wone electric power,it is aslo equped by D.C motor as an engine.