Abstract
Fuel quality is an important indicator for the suitability of alternative fuel for the utilization in internal combustion (IC) engines. In this paper, light naphtha and fusel oil have been introduced as fuel additives for local low octane gasoline to operate a spark ignition (SI) engine. Investigated fuel samples have been prepared based on volume and denoted as GN10 (90% local gasoline and 10% naphtha), GF10 (90% local gasoline and 10% fusel oil), and GN5F5 (90% local gasoline, 5% naphtha and 5% fusel oil) in addition to G100 (Pure local gasoline). Engine tests have been conducted to evaluate engine performance and exhaust emissions at increasing speed and constant wide throttle opening (WTO). The study results reveal varying engine performance obtained with GN10 and GF10 with increasing engine speed compared to local gasoline fuel (G). Moreover, GN5F5 shows higher brake power, lower brake specific fuel consumption, and higher brake thermal efficiency compared to other investigated fuel samples over the whole engine speed. The higher CO and CO2 emissions were obtained with GN10 and GF10, respectively, over the entire engine speed and the minimum CO emissions observed with GN5F5. Moreover, the higher NOx emission was observed with pure local gasoline while the lowest was observed with GF10. On the other hand, GN5F5 shows slightly higher NOx emissions than GF10, which is lower than GN10 and gasoline. Accordingly, GN5F5 shows better engine performance and exhaust emissions, which can enhance the local low gasoline fuel quality using the locally available fuel additives.