2/26/2019 What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that make it ideal for internal combustion engines?

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What are the properties of gasoline?

What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that What are the opportunities for an internal
make it ideal for internal combustion engines? combustion engine car?

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4 Answers combustion engine?

What are the alternate fuels used in internal

Andrew Qian, likes machinery, such as cars combustion engines?
Updated Sep 7 2017 · Author has 600 answers and 1.4m answer views
How much gas is used in each combustion of an
It’s not ideal, and there is arguably no ideal fuel.
average internal combustion engine?

Some of the problems with gasoline include:

Toxicity

Octane rating could be higher (helps increase power/efficiency)

Heat of vaporization could be higher (helps increase power by cooling the air
it’s mixed with)

Flame speed could be higher (helps increase power/efficiency)

Some of the benefits of gasoline include:

Cheap

Liquid state

High energy density (better than alcohols, LPG, LNG, etc., and only a little
behind diesel/fuel oil)

Vaporizes and ignites easily at low temperature

Octane rating is good enough

Gasoline is used because it’s pretty good and easy to produce in large amounts.
Higher ethanol content fuels for example are cleaner burning and offer more power
and efficiency, but they have lower energy density and don’t ignite as easily at low
temperature. Natural gas is great, but needs a big heavy storage tank.

If we ever have the capacity to produce large amounts of ethanol very cheaply, then a
blend like E25 would be an improvement over today’s E10 gasoline if it became the
standard. Tests have shown that blends in that range can actually give more range
than E10, because the ethanol increases the efficiency enough to offset the loss in
energy content. On top of that, it would make every tank of gasoline “premium”,
allowing higher compression ratio/boost motors across the board.

Higher % ethanol blends get you a smaller power increase for a bigger drop in range.

2.8k Views · View 5 Upvoters · Answer requested by Felix Leung

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Related Questions More Answers Below

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2/26/2019 What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that make it ideal for internal combustion engines? - Quora
What are the properties of gasoline?
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What are the opportunities for an internal combustion engine car?

What are some examples of an internal combustion engine?

How many internal combustion engines are there in the world?

What are the components of internal combustion engines?

Stuart Rawson
Updated Aug 28, 2016 · Author has 479 answers and 573.2k answer views

Various oils have been tested in combustion engine. They must have good ignition
quality, power and efficiency (other than its cost effectiveness and emissions) in order
to be an ideal fuel for an engine.

There are various properties of fuel that affects its performance in engine

Ignition quality - needs right self ignition point. Gaseous fuels have poor
ignition quality. Hence it may require pilot spray of fuel oil as starter. [3]

You can't use a fuel which self ignites before the spark plug fires, nor can you
use a fuel which has a much higher self ignition point, because it won't burn
fast enough.

Knocking property (octane, cetane) - High compression engine require

higher octane rating. For diesel, cetane rating is relevant. Kerosene is a fuel
with lower cetane number than diesel fuel, thus it should give a longer
ignition delay. longer ignition delay means longer time for the fuel to mix
with the in-cylinder gas prior to combustion onset. [1]

Volatility - self ignition point cannot be too high - volatility can affect
richness of mixture (lean or rich) - Furthermore, the chamber may have a
particular temperature that it is operating at. (So the amount volatilized in
that temperature range would differ). (See Fig. 1). Volatility also influence fire
hazard. [3]

Viscosity affects fuel delivery [3] and pumpability [4] Straight run
vegetable oil (SVO) have higher viscosity which creates injector and line
backpressure problems in direct inject engines [5] Higher ranges of
viscosity can block filters, clog fuel lines and adversely affect fuel
atomization

Spraying properties - When the injectors improperly spray fuel into the
cylinder, the SVO hits thecylinder walls, improperly combusts and
polymerizes [5] . Furthermore, when comparing JP5 and diesel, the lower
viscosity of JP5 promote smaller size droplet. This may contribute to lower
PM emission. [6]

Uniformity of flow inside manifold

Coking of injectors - a serious issue for straight run vegetable oil(SVO) [5]

Composition of gritty matter - can cause wear [3]

etc

Modern engines have a pretty strict parameter range and designs of engine may vary
(i.e. injection timing, air intake curve, choke). The properties of fuel will affect
performance in different engines. Some performance that are evaluated in different
engines include [1]

the richness of the mixture

Vapor lock [2]

ice formation in carburetor [2]

Some of the uncombusted fraction (especially heavier fraction) may pass into
the crankcase and dilute the crankcase oil. They may cause combustion
chamber deposits. [2]

timing ofthe pre-injection

etc

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2/26/2019 What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that make it ideal for internal combustion engines? - Quora
Here is a study for blending of kerosene and diesel: http://sitesubharti.org/main_sit...
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Here is a study for straight run vegetable oil - http://www.extsoilcrop.colostate...

Here is a study of JP5-diesel fuel blend in diesel engine - Aviation fuel JP-5 and
biodiesel on a diesel engine

Naphtha is comprised of wide range of mixture.. the lighter constrituent (H2, C2, C3 to
about C15). You can separate pyrolysis gasoline from naphtha. or you can separate
LPG fraction of Naphtha. There is however naphtha that is used as Jet fuel

Fig. 1 Source: [2]

While kerosene can run diesel engine, kerosene use is more relevant for jet engine.
Kerosene for jet turbine for military and civilian jet differ. Military kerosene grades
are JP-MIL, JETA, etc. Civilian jet kerosene are refined fuel. Source: [1]

In jet engine, volatility cannot be too high such that it causes vapor lock. (but it
cannot be too low in order to aid in starting in cold weather and to make aerial
restarts easier and surer.) cite:TURBINEENGINEFUELS

cite:TURBINEENGINEFUELS

Here is a thesis on liquid biofuel for gas turbine engine:

http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/downlo...

Sulfur composition is also important

OTHERS:-

Property of of fuels that are tested include;initial boiling point(IBP),finalboiling

point(FBP).distillation losses,freezing point, conductivity, total acidity, olifine
content, smoke point , water separation index. Due to refinery control wishes, flash
point(flash) and density(specific gravity)[1] Reid vapor pressure is a measure of
volatility.

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2/26/2019 What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that make it ideal for internal combustion engines? - Quora
REFERENCES:-
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[1] http://sitesubharti.org/main_sit...

[2] http://web.itu.edu.tr/~sorusbay/...

[3] The Internal-combustion Engine in Theory and Practice: Combustion, fuels ... By
Charles Fayette Taylor The Internal-combustion Engine in Theory and Practice:
Combustion, fuels, materials, design

[4]The Relationship Between Engine Oil Viscosity and Engine Performance, Part 2 By
Ross M. Stewart The Relationship Between Engine Oil Viscosity and Engine
Performance

[5] http://www.extsoilcrop.colostate...

[6] Aviation fuel JP-5 and biodiesel on a diesel engine Dimitrios M. Korres , Dimitrios
Karonis , Evripidis Lois , Martin B. Linck , Ashwani K. Gupta Aviation fuel JP-5 and
biodiesel on a diesel engine

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Vega Handojo, interested in oil refinery

Answered May 23, 2016 · Author has 368 answers and 570.5k answer views

As far as I know, each internal combustion engine (petrol engine, diesel engine, also
jet engine) is optimized for a certain class of hydrocarbon fuel.

One criterion that defines the class is the evaporation curve:

Source: de.wikipedia.org

These evaporation curves tell about the composition of the fuel (whether lighter or
heavier hydrocarbon molecules, whether more or less homogeneous...).

The composition also influences the fuel properties such as heat value, octane/cetane

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2/26/2019 What are the properties of gasoline (petrol) that make it ideal for internal combustion engines? - Quora
number, flash point, autoignition temperature and many more. These are some
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parameters an engine is optimized for.

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Frank Popa, 40 years in fuels

Answered May 25, 2016 · Author has 5.3k answers and 1.4m answer views

The reason that fossil fuels are so useful for transportation is their high energy
density, how cheap they are, how cheap and light the engines that use them are.

They are storable and transportable themselves.

With a little care, they turn into relatively innocuous materials when combusted.
Natural things like water and carbon dioxide.

555 Views · Answer requested by Felix Leung

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