FUEL SAVING GASOLINE-ALCOHOL COMPOSITION

COMPOSE D'ESSENCE ET D'ALCOOL ECONOMISEUR DE CARBURANT

English Abstract

A high-octane gasoline-alcohol composition to fuel a combustion engine with an
alcohol concentration
well beyond the mutual solubility problem. Alcohol blend used could comprise
more then few percent of
water The components are either delivered to a combustion chamber separately
or mixed together just
before combustion. Fuel economy results from utilization of a combustion
engine with compression ratio
matching the fuel composition octane number.

Claims

FUEL SAVING GASOLINE-ALCOHOL COMPOSITION
The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is
claimed are defined as follows:
1. A high octane fuel composition comprising gasoline and alcohol blend
components, and the
problem of exfoliation of the said fuel composition is avoided by preparation
of the said fuel
composition from the said components just before the said fuel composition
consumption by an
internal combustion engine,
where the said alcohol blend can comprise alcohol itself (methanol for example
but not limited
by this example) or technical blend of alcohols altogether with some other
components, for
example but not limited to this example ethers that are normally present in
not purified alcohol
blends, and water could be present in the said blend with concentrations more
then a few
percent of it (water).
2. A method of usage of the unstable to exfoliation high octane fuel
composition claimed Claim
1 where the said gasoline and alcohol blend components are contained in
separate fuel tanks
and both are delivered to a same chamber or cell, and in order to make the
said fuel
composition uniform the said fuel components are further mixed together in the
said chamber or
cell just before the said fuel mixture enters a carburetor or fuel
injector/injectors,
to perform the mixing of the said components any kind of well known devices
can be used, for
example but not limited to this example an ultrasound whistle could be
employed.
3. An on-board electronic system comprising a computer and sensors, where the
said electronic
system in addition to standard information about regime of operation of the
said combustion
engine is provided by a special sensor with a data of alcohol concentration in
the alcohol blend,
and depending on the formulated goal
for example but not limited to this example the goal to decrease the amount of
oil based
component in a fuel,
or for another example but not limited by this example to adjust the octane
number of the said
fuel composition to road conditions,
or for example but not limited by this example to minimize the total cost of
the fuel composition,
the said computer all the time determines the timing, amount and
concentrations of the said
components in the said fuel composition to be delivered to the engine, and
manages fuel pumps
and fuel injectors.
4. A method of preparation of the fuel composition as it is claimed in Claim 1
where
the said fuel composition is actually mixed only within an intake manifold or
a cylinder of the
said combustion engine,
the said gasoline and alcohol blend components being delivered for the said
purpose by separate
fuel injectors.

5. A method of utilization of the fuel composition as it is claimed in Claim
1, where in order to
maintain the desired engine regime the said components concentrations can vary
during a
combustion cycle and within the volume of the cylinder,
for example but not limited to this example in order to provide better
ignition and avoid
detonation of the said fuel composition a gasoline enriched mixture is
delivered to the vicinity of
spark plugs but alcohol enriched mixture is delivered to the volume
surrounding this ignition
region,
or for another example but also not limited by this example a gasoline
enriched mixture is
delivered initially during a combustion cycle but later the components
concentrations change
during the same cycle.

Description

CA 02312596 2000-07-OS
FUEL SAVING GASOLINE -ALCOHOL COMPOSITION
The present invention relies to fuels for combustion engines, particularly for
automobiles and
to reduce fuel consumption and corresponding gases emission by an internal
combustion engine
The presented invention is based on two well known in the field facts and is
utilizing also a
known approach. It is only just a new combination of these factors that makes
an invention. Tl
fact is that a combustion engine with higher compression ratio (operating on a
fuel with
octane number) consumes lesser volumes of fuel for the same power output. The
second fact
an addition of alcohol to gasoline increases the firel octane number
(approximately 0.6 % in
for 1 % addition of an alcohol).
The basis of alcohol or any other additions to gasoline is the excessive
energy concentra~
IO gasoline. It is well known that approximately 30 % of gasoline is used only
to produce the w
body of gases. The first who tried to overcome this excess was Bangui,
corresponding
obtained in 1896. Since that time researchers were developing different fuel
mixtures, a
primarily alcohol and water as additives to produce a fuel blend or emulsion.
"Gasohol"~ is
such products: developed in the seventies in order to reduce the volume of oil
based part of a
be consumed by existing at that time park of internal combustion engines.
Unfortunately an alcohol and gasoline mutual solubility problem limits the
alcohol concentr;
less then I O % of alcohol in a blend before the exfoliation takes place.
Presence of water in a
further reduces this 10 % limit, so alcohol has to be very concentrated (only
few percent of w
a blend), but purification of alcohol from water makes it more expensive than
gasoline.
20 At the same time from the theory of chain reactions (detonation is one of
such) it could be con
that water molecules could boost octane number even better than alcohol.
Studies with addi~
water to gasoline by creating gasoline/water emulsion provided at the Moscow
State Uni
confirmed it, but the cost of emulsion stabilizer was too high to make the
obtained fizel comb
with gasoline. An addition of water in more then ten percent amounts also
reduced the power
from an engine (private communication from Prof. N.V. Pertsov)
Another also well-known approach was and still is both to keep and to deliver
fuel comp
separately. Such dual fuel systems, as are disclosed in the US Patent
5,450,832, or US
4,019,477, or US Patent 4,323,046 allow to substitute part of gasoline by
other fuel for t
purposes. Another dual fuel system like disclosed in the Canadian Patent
01174921 allows to i
30 dual fizel system for operating of the internal combustion engine mostly on
a low level
number fuel (gasoline) at the edge of detonation by addition of corresponding
volumes of alcoh~
To achieve the goal of fuel economy an engine should operate on a fuel with as
high octane n
as possible, correspondingly the concentration of alcohol have to exceed
mutual solubility limi
such an engine would not be able to operate on a regular gasoline Such
composition wo
unstable and so gasoline and alcohol (or natural gas) have to be mixed
together either in a ,
cell just before entering a carburetor or fi~el injector or to be delivered by
separate fuel injec~
either an intake manifold or directly to cylinders by same or separate valves.
Thus the fuel woe
have time to exfoliate. With the problem of exfoliation being omitted water
concentration in

CA 02312596 2000-07-OS
blend would not be limited to few percents and thus an alcohol blend could be
of
concentrations (for example a 70 % blend could still be ignited and the price
of such an a
40 blend is less then the same volumes of a gasoline).
Depending on a formulated goal (to adjust an octane number to road conditions,
to reduce
emission, to reduce oil based component in a fuel, to reduce the price of a
mile, etc.) an o~
computer determines the components concentrations and amounts in the fuel; it
could also c
these concentrations during a single combustion cycle. With the components
delivered to an
separately it would be easy to ensure better ignition of a fuel by delivering
a small portio
gasoline directly to the vicinity of spark plugs, to operate at idle
conditions on an alcohol er
fuel, to vary components concentration during a combustion cycle and in a
cylinder volume.
This approach currently looks to provide additional advantages comparing to
all other fuel
alternatives:
SO
~ Alcohol as an automobile fuel is well known and intensively studied, so
there would not bE
unpleasant surprises.
~ Alcohol is manufactured in very large volumes for a long time, thus the
production would
a limiting factor.
~ Alcohol could be manufactured from quite a variety of raw materials,
particularly from prc
by local agriculture, so there would be a public support.
~ The same gasoline stations without any costly complications could easy
distribute alcohol.
~ An installation of an additional tank, a pump and a fuel line, an increase
of an
compression ratio, a new program for an onboard computer etc., would not
require a co
change of an automobile manufacturing process (like for example with a car
from alumim
an electrically powered one) thus capital investments in manufacturing and
training look
very reasonable.
2