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Fuel Properties
 Fuel Properties
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 Why do we study about Fuel properties?

 Fuel Properties
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 There are some international organization who engaged in

measurement and control of fuel properties
 SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers)
 decides on need for new or modified standards
 ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials)
 develops the testing procedures to measure properties
 API (American Petroleum Institute)
 works with fuel suppliers to produce fuels with
appropriate properties
 Fuel Properties
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 What are the important properties

 Specific gravity
 Heating value
 Volatility
 Flashpoint
 Viscosity
 Pour points
 Impurities
 Octane & Cetane numbers
 Specific Gravity
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 Measure of density of liquid fuel

 It can be measured by hydrometers
 Density of fuel usually less than that of water, i.e. fuel floats on water
 Specific gravity (SG) is a dimensionless number

 Density of Fuel @ 15.60C  Fuel Density (kg/l)

Specific Gravity ( SG )   0

 Density of Water @ 15.6 C  Gasoline 0.72-0.78
 Density of Fuel  kg   Diesel 0.82-0.86
  L
  
1 kg Methanol 0.79
 
 L  Ethanol 0.79
 Heating value
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 Heating or calorific value

• Heat or energy produced during combustion per unit mass of fuel
• Gross calorific value (GCV) or Higher heating value: Assume all vapor
produced during combustion is fully condensed
• Net calorific value (NCV) or Lower heating value: Assume water vapor
is not fully condensed
Fuel Heating Value (MJ/kg)

Gasoline 44
Diesel 42.5
Methanol 19.7
Ethanol 26.8
 Heating Value of Fuels
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 For petroleum fuels, heating value can be estimated

from fuel specific gravity
 Procedure:
 Use hydrometer to measure specific gravity at 15.60C
 Calculate API0 = (141.5/SG)-131.5
 Some hydrometers calibrated directly in API0
 Estimate heating values from equations
 HHV = 42860+93*(API0 -10) kJ/kg
 LHV = 0.7190*HHV+10000 kJ/kg
 The American Petroleum Institute gravity, or API gravity, is a
measure of how heavy or light a petroleum liquid is compared to
water:
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 Volatility
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 V olatility is A fuel’s ability to vaporize or change from

liquid to vapor

 Fuels won’t burn till they vaporize

 The volatility characteristics of fuel in a spark ignition

(SI) engine are of prime importance.

 Volatility
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Volatility too low Volatility too high

• Poor cold start • High evaporative emissions,
• Poor warm up performance • Hot drivability problems, vapor lock
• Poor cold weather drivability • Fuel economy may deteriorate
• Unequal fuel distribution in
carbureted vehicles
• Increased deposits: crankcase,
spark plugs, combustion chamber
 Volatility
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 The main parameters to establish volatility limits are

 Vapor/ Liquid Ratio (V / L )

 Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP)

 Distillation curves
 Vapor/liquid ratio (volume)
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 If mixture of hydrocarbons is enclosed in a variable volume container

such that the pressure is always atmospheric, the vapor fraction will
increase with increasing temperature.

 The temperature at which V/L = 20 is used as a key indicator of

“vapor lock” tendency; the malfunctioning of a vehicle because
there is too much vapor in the fuel delivery system.

 More volatile fuels require lower temperatures to achieve this ratio

while less volatile fuels require higher temperatures to create the same
ratio.
 Volatility
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 Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP)

 Test used on gasoline fuel
 Measured @ 37 0C in a vapor pressure bomb
 Higher vapor pressure means more volatile fuel
 RVP expresses volatility with a single number
 Adjusted seasonally and geographically at the refinery by relative
abundance of C4 compounds (butane and isobutane)
 Winter gasoline RVP, 60-80 kPa
 For Summer RVP = 56 kPa
 Volatility
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 Distillation curves
 Upon heating a mixture of
hydrocarbons, lighter (more
volatile) compounds are
driven off first; remaining
mixture has higher boiling
point.
 Crankcase dilution
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 Liquid fuel in the cylinder causes loss of lubricating oil (by washing
away oil from cylinder walls) which deteriorates the quality of
lubrication and tends to cause damage to the engine through increased
friction.

 The liquid fuel may also dilute the lubricating oil and weaken the oil
film between the rubbing surface

 To prevent these possibilities, the upper portion of the distillation curve

should exhibit sufficiently low distillation temperatures to insure that
all fuel in the cylinder is vaporized by the time the combustion start
 Vapor Lock
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 High rate of vaporization of gasoline can upset the carburetor

metering or even stop the fuel flow to the engine by setting up a
vapor lock in the fuel passages

 This characteristics, demands the presence of relative high boiling

temperature hydrocarbons throughout the distillation range

 Since this requirement is inconsistence with other requirements

( cold start and crank case dilution) so that it needs a compromise
23
Flash Point of Fuels

 Flash point of a flammable liquid

 is the lowest temperature at which it can form an ignitable mixture in air
 Varies with fuel volatility but is not related to engine performance

 Relates to safety precautions that must be taken when handling a fuel

 Gasoline necessarily has low flash point & thus requires more stringent
handling procedures than diesel fuel

 Flash point of diesel is 52oC or higher, therefore, at ordinary ambient

temperatures, it does not form enough vapor for combustible mixture
 Viscosity
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 Measure of resistance to flow

 Important for diesel fuel
 1) To lube the injection equipment
 2) Get proper spray pattern from injectors
 Limits established by SAE
 Kinematic viscosity @ 40 oC
 #1 diesel (min 1.3 mm2/s; max 2.4 mm2/s)
 #2 diesel ( min 1.9 mm2/s; max 4.1 mm2/s)
 Measured by viscometer
 Cloud & Pour Points
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 Cloud Point
 is the temperature at which large molecules start to form
crystals
 Pour Point
• Lowest temperature at which fuel will flow
• Indication of temperature at which fuel can be pumped
 Fuel Impurities: Sulfur
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 Sulfur compounds naturally present in crude oil but most of sulfur removed
during refining
 Must be limited to prevent corrosion in engine and exhaust system

 Sulfur compounds react with combustion water to produce H2SO4- rust out exhaust
system and affect exhaust after-treatment systems

 In USA, sulfur content of gasoline averages less than 0.03% by weight

 SAE limit for sulfur in diesel is 0.05% (500ppm)

 Low sulfur grades of diesel have been developed recently to meet more stringent
emission requirements
 Other Fuel Impurities
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 Gum-
 Viscous liquid formed in gasoline during storage, limits storage time for
fuel
 Ash-
 Small solid particles found in fuels- particularly harmful for diesel
engines because of abrasion in fuel injection system
 Water & sediment
 can enter during handling and storage
 Water
 can promote the formation of slime/algae
 can undermine lubricity of diesel fuel
 Knock in SI Engines
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 Knock in SI Engines (What is engine knock?)

 Occurs when end gases (gases ahead of the flame front) self-ignite and
generate a rapid, uncontrolled release of energy

 Quick energy release causes sharp rise in pressure and pressure

oscillations

 Fuels differ widely in their ability to resist knock.

 Effect of Knocking
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 Factors That Contribute Knocking
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 Increased compression
  high temperatures
  lean fuel/air mixture
  advanced ignition timing
  lower octane fuels are all factors that

PROMOTE detonation conditions

 Effects of knocking during engine
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process
 1. a drop in engine performance.

 2. pollution of gases from the combustion is

incomplete.

 3. high consumption of fuel.

 Fuel knock Rating of SI Engine Fuels
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 Fuel knock rating for a particular fuels is accomplished by

comparing its performance with that of a standard reference fuel
which is usually a combination of Iso-Octane and normal heptane

 Iso-Octane, being a very good anti-knock fuel is assigned a rating of

100 octane number,

 Normal heptane, has a very poor anti-knock qualities and is given a

rating of 0 octane number
 Octane Number
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 Octane number is a measure of the knock resistance of gasoline fuel

(resistance to Auto-ignition), the higher the octane number of a fuel, the
less likely it will self-ignite.

 Engines with low compression ratios can use fuels with lower octane
numbers, but high-compression engines must use high-octane fuel to
avoid self-ignition and knock.

 Things that affect knock are combustion chamber geometry, compression

ratio, turbulence, swirl, temperature, inert gases, etc.

 Fuel components with long chain molecules generally have lower octane
numbers, components with more side chains have higher octane numbers.
 Octane rating
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Assignment

 Search from internet and present the

procedure how to determine octane
rating for Gasoline fuel
 Causes of engine knock
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 Low octane number of gasoline fuel

 Due to engine ages, deposits might build up on the combustion

chamber walls. This increases knock problems in two ways.

1. First, it makes the clearance volume smaller and consequently

increases the compression ratio.

2. Second, the deposits act as a thermal barrier and increase the

temperatures throughout the engine cycle, including peak
temperature.
 Diesel fuel
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 In a compression ignition engine, self-ignition of the air-fuel

mixture is a necessity.

 The correct fuel must be chosen which will self-ignite at the

proper time in the engine cycle. The property that quantifies
this is called the cetane number.

 The larger the cetane number, the shorter is the ignition delay
(ID) and the quicker the fuel will self-ignite in the combustion
chamber environment.

 A low cetane number means the fuel will have a long ID.
 Diesel fuel
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 Like octane number rating, cetane numbers are established by

comparing the test fuel to two standard reference fuels

 The fuel component n-cetane (hexadecane), C16H34, is given

the cetane number value of 100, while heptamethylnonane
(HMN), C12H34, is given the value of 15.

 The cetane number (CN) of other fuels is then obtained by

comparing the ID of that fuel to the ID of a mixture blend of
the two reference fuels

 CN of fuel = (percent of n-cetane) + (0.15)(percent of HMN)

 Effect of cetane number
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 Normal cetane number range is about 40 to 60. For a given engine

injection timing and rate, if the cetane number of the fuel is low the
ID will be too long.

 When this occurs, more fuel than, desirable will be injected into the
cylinder before the first fuel particles ignite, causing a very large,
fast pressure rise at the start of combustion

 EUROPE: 43 - 57, average 50

 U.S. lower, minimum 40, average 43
 SAE minimum cetane rating set at 40
 Effect of Cetane Rating
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 Higher cetane correlates with

 improved combustion
 improved cold starting
 reduced noise, white smoke, HC, CO and particulate emissions,
especially during early warm-up phase
 Low Cetane benefits
 More premixed combustion due to longer ignition delay
 Higher efficiency
 Less smoke
 Low cetane disadvantage
 Higher engine stress
 More noise
 Additives used for gasoline
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1. Anti-knock Additive:- Required to eliminate knock or increase

the octane number the usual additive was tetraethyllead

2. Deposit-modifiers:- Used to modify the chemical character of

combustion chamber deposits and so reduce surface ignition and
spark plug fouling. They are usually a phosphorus or boron
compound.

3. Anti-oxidants:- Used to reduce gum formation and

decomposition of the lead compounds. They are usually an
amine.
 Additives used for gasoline
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4. Detergents:- Used to prevent deposits in the carburetor and

manifold. They are usually an alkyl amine phosphate.

5. Lubricants:- Used to lubricate valve guides and upper cylinder regions.

They are usually light mineral oils.

6. Metal de-activators:- Used to destroy the catalytic activity of traces of

copper. They are usually amine derivatives.

7. Anti-rust Agents:- Used to prevent rust and corrosion due to moisture

in the air. They are usually fatty acid amines, sulfonates, or alkyl
phosphates.