DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF FUEL FOR IC ENGINE – A REVIEW OF FUEL CONSUMPTION AND EMISSIONS

Abstract

This paper aims to identify research areas that address the issues of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions in transportation and other internal combustion engines (IC engine). The author’s view, will help Three types of IC engines are discussed and compared: Spark-Ignited (SI), Conventional Diesel, and Low Temperature Combustion (LTC), with their operating regimes. The focus is on gasoline SI engine, which depends on high-temperature turbulent flame propagation, and is influenced by complex physical and chemical kinetic processes. The SI engine is the least fuel efficient, partly due to high flame temperatures leading to significant wall heat transfer losses. These high temperatures also result in high NOx emissions, but tailpipe emissions are reduced by the low-cost three-way catalyst. However, emissions of N2O and other unburned hydrocarbons (UHCs) during cold starts (before catalyst “light-off”) remain a concern. N₂O has a long atmospheric lifetime (approximately 120 years) and is about 300 times more effective than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas. Conventional diesel engines are 20-40% more fuel efficient than SI engines, and their combustion process is less complex.