Experimental Investigation on Ceramic Hot Surface Ignition C.I Engine using Methanol Fuel

The concept of using alcohol fuels as an alternative to diesel fuel in diesel engines is one of the recent developments. The scarcity of petroleum fuels due to the fast depletion of petroleum deposits and frequent rise in their costs in the international market have spurred many efforts to find alternatives. Alcohols are quickly recognized as prime candidates to displace or replace high octane petroleum fuels. However, alternatives for the large demand of diesel fuels in many countries were not so evident. Innovative thinking led to the finding of various techniques by which alcohol can be used as a fuel in diesel engines. Amongst the fuel alternatives proposed, the most favourite ones are methanol and ethanol. So far no established method is available to run a normal diesel engine with a compression ratio from 14:1 to 20:1 by using alcohol as a fuel. This is because, the properties of diesel engine fuels differ from the properties of diesel fuels. The specific tendency of alcohols to ignite easily from a hot surface makes it suitable for ignition in a diesel engine. The advantage of this property of alcohols enables to design and construct a new type of engine called surface ignition engine. In this type of engine, the injected fuel ignites not by compression ignition but by contact with a hot surface maintained with in the engine. Since methanol and ethanol are very susceptible to surface ignition, this method is very suitable for these fuels. The hot surface which can be used in surface ignition engine is a ceramic heater with hot surface flush. Hence the present research work carries the experimental investigation on ceramic hot surface ignition engine with methanol as the fuel and with catalytic coatings with an objective to find the best one in terms of performance, emissions and combustion parameters.