Experimental investigation on the combustion and emissions characteristics of 2-methylfuran gasoline blend fuel in spark-ignition engine

Currently, 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) has already been extensively studied as a novel potential gasoline substitute. With its improved reaction sequences, another main molecule transformed from fructose has also aroused worldwide interest, which is known as 2-methylfuran (MF). MF has similar energy density and knock suppression ability to DMF. However, little is known about its behavior in spark-ignition (SI) engines, especially when it is used as a gasoline additive. Therefore, focus was given on the combustion and emissions characteristics of 10% volume fraction 2-methylfuran gasoline blend fuel (M10) in this work, which was investigated experimentally in a single-cylinder four-stroke SI engine at various engine speeds (800–1800 rpm in 200 rpm intervals) and wide open throttle (WOT). The in-cylinder combustion process as well as engine performance of M10 were compared with gasoline and the same proportion ethanol gasoline blend fuel (E10) under gasoline maximum brake torque (MBT) spark timing and stoichiometric air-fuel ratio. Results of engine tests show that M10 produces relatively high in-cylinder peak pressure and temperature, which is mainly attributed to its consistently shorter combustion duration. Compared with engine performance of E10, the output torque and brake power increase slightly with less brake specific fuel consumption when M10 is used. Lower regulated gas emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) can be found for both E10 and M10 blend. In addition, more nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions are generated from M10 due to its higher combustion temperature.