Efficiency Increase for Spark-Ignited Oxygenated Fuels through Adaptation of Cylinder Head and Piston

To minimize the CO2 footprint of combustion engines, synthetic fuels provide a sustainable alternative to conventional fuels when produced with renewable energy and a suitable carbon source. Efficiency and exhaust gas characteristics are very important criteria in this context. In this paper research regarding synthetic fuels conducted at a single cylinder spark-ignition engine is represented. Thereby the geometry of inlet ports and piston were varied to achieve higher efficiency. The results show an increase in efficiency of up to 14%rel when utilizing the high knock resistance of the synthetic fuel with a compression ratio of 19 compared to gasoline with a compression ratio of 11. Furthermore, the efficiency breakdown showed that the adapted engine design is not able to meet the production setup in terms of combustion speed and combustion losses. Additional research with a refined engine geometry could lead to even further improvements.