Title: Effect of adding fusel oil with gasoline on performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of gasoline injection engine

Authors: Gopinath Dhamodaran; Ganapathy Sundaram Esakkimuthu; Sathyanarayanan Seetharaman; Ramesh Krishnan

Addresses: Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, Easwari Engineering College, India; Centre for Research, SRM TRP Engineering College, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Velammal Engineering College, Chennai, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Easwari Engineering College, Chennai, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, St. Joseph's Institute of Technology, Chennai, India

Abstract: Fusel oil is a 5-carbon structure fuel, and it is a by-product of the alcohol manufacturing process. Fusel oil provides higher octane number and oxygen percentage compared to gasoline and this provides an opportunity to improve the performance of an engine. This study investigates the effect of adding fusel oil to gasoline on the properties of gasoline/fusel oil blends and the performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of gasoline engine. The addition of fusel oil with gasoline produced lower density, lower calorific value, and higher oxygen percentage and RON of the gasoline/fusel oil blend. The study found that for all engine speeds F30 blend produced higher brake thermal efficiency as compared to gasoline, 15.12% higher BTE is observed in the F30 blend at 2,800 rpm. At 2,800 rpm, lower hydrocarbon (48 ppm) and carbon monoxide (0.013%) is observed F30 blend, but NOx is observed with higher values. Furthermore, engine input parameters were optimised to achieve the maximum engine performance with a desirability of 0.993 and higher R2 values ranging between 0.995 and 0.998. [Received: June 2, 2023; Accepted: June 19, 2024]

Keywords: oxygenates; octane number; gasoline; unburned hydrocarbon; carbon monoxide; fusel oil.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2025.148734

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2025 Vol.38 No.3, pp.376 - 399

Accepted: 19 Jun 2024
Published online: 22 Sep 2025 *

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