QUT to test engine using biodiesel, ethanol at once

November 3, 2008

BY Ryan C. Christiansen

Web exclusive posted Nov. 13, 2008 at 3:03 p.m. CST

A new research and testing facility at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, will test new technologies for producing industrial and transportation engines that are designed specifically for using biofuels. The first project in the new Biofuel Engine Research Facility, which opened Nov. 6, is to enable diesel engines to use both petroleum diesel (or biodiesel) and ethanol at the same time, according to Dr. Richard Brown, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at the university's School of Engineering Systems.

Brown said the engine is currently being tested using petroleum diesel and ethanol, which are introduced to the engine separately. The ethanol is mixed with air in the intake manifold before it's introduced into the cylinder. The mixture is then compressed in the cylinder before diesel fuel is introduced to initiate combustion. "So far, we have reduced diesel consumption by about 40 percent," Brown said. The engine is also able to use hydrous ethanol and ethanol with up to 25 percent water content has been tested with no reduction in thermal efficiency, he added.

In the future, biodiesel will be tested in the engine, Brown said, as well as methanol and hydrogen. The new research facility includes a dynamometer with instrumentation that instantaneously measures the fuel consumption of each fuel being fed into the engine and engine efficiency, he said. "The facility is able to simulate a full driving cycle for the engine and to record all engine parameters during the cycle," Brown said. "We are able to measure in-cylinder pressure in order to make a detailed study of the combustion process in the engine."

The new research facility cost approximately $AUD 400,000 ($250,000), Brown said, with funding provided by industry partner Alternative Engine Technologies, as well as the Australian Research Council and the university. Ethanol producer Heck Group and ethanol and biodiesel retailer Freedom Fuels are also project partners. Three faculty members, two doctoral students, and six undergraduate students are involved in the research, he said.

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