1984 CRC (Coordinating Research Council) intermediate temperature driveability program using gasoline-alcohol blends

Technical Report · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:5391870

Thirty 1984 and six 1979 model-year vehicles were tested with two hydrocarbon-only fuels and twenty hydrocarbon-alcohol blends during October and November 1984 at Paso Robles, California, to identify the effect of alcohol type, alcohol concentration, cosolvent type and methanol to cosolvent ratio on cold-start and warmup driveability at intermediate temperature (40 F-60 F). The secondary objective of the program was to determine if the 10, 50, and 90% distillation temperatures of these test fuels could predict cold-start and warmup driveability performance. In general, the hydrocarbon-only fuels gave better driveability than the hydrocarbon-alcohol blends; however, the 1984 model vehicles had better driveability on all fuels than earlier programs had exhibited. Fuel-injected vehicles gave better driveability than carburetted vehicles with all fuels. Increased volatility improved driveability with both hydrocarbon-only fuels and hydrocarbon-alcohol blends. Gasoline-ethanol blends gave better driveability than gasoline-methanol (without a cosolvent) blends. No significant differences were observed when ethanol and gasoline-grade tertiary butyl alcohol were compared as cosolvents in methanol blends.

• Research Organization: Coordinating Research Council, Inc., Atlanta, GA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5391870
• Report Number(s): AD-A-188330/5/XAB; CRC-554
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
295000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Hydrogen & Synthetic Fuels
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330800* -- Emission Control-- Alternative Fuels
ALCOHOLS
AUTOMOTIVE FUELS
DISPERSIONS
ENGINES
FUELS
GASOHOL
GASOLINE
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
LIQUID FUELS
MIXTURES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
TESTING