Viabilidade técnico-econômica do uso do etanol super-hidratado em motores de ciclo Otto

Abstract

Recent researches has shown that there will be not a single source of energy in the future, but this will be quite diverse, with specific local alternatives, especially when it comes to renewable fuels. In this context, Brazil fits nicely in your experience of intense use of ethanol as a fuel for automotive engines. Ethanol is the most common alcohols and widely used as automotive fuel in hydrated or anhydrous form mixed with gasoline. But the high cost to obtain hydrous ethanol with an alcoholic strength from 92.5 to 93.8 ° INPM is a limiting factor for its use. Considering that much of the energy required for ethanol fermentation processing is spent on distillation and dehydration, the possibility of ethanol use with higher water percentages in Otto cycle engines considerably favors the energy balance due to the lower cost obtaining. This economic technical work proposes the analysis performance of a spark-ignition engine running on super-hydrated ethanol in proportions of 10, 15 and 20% of volume in water, with a focus on reduction of energy for the production and consequently reducing the cost of operation. In this engine are explored through experimental testing, calibration alternatives programmable electronic management system, seeking optimized parameters for performance improvement. This study estimates that ethanol with alcohol content as low as the E85W15 behaves as an economically viable fuel and is recommended as a means of increasing the economic return when using ethanol as fuel.