Limits of compression ratio in spark-ignition combustion with methanol

A shift toward a circular and CO2-neutral world is required, in which rapid defossilization and lower emissions are realized. A promising alternative fuel that has gained traction is methanol, thanks to its favorable and clean-burning fuel properties as well as its ability to be produced in a carbon-neutral process. Especially methanol's high knock resistance and its combustion stability offer the opportunity to operate an engine at both a high compression ratio and a high excess air dilution. Although methanol has been investigated in series-production engines for passenger car applications, there is a lack of investigations on a dedicated engine that can operate at methanol's knock limit. In this paper, methanol's knock limitation is experimentally assessed by applying high compression ratios to a direct injection spark-ignition single-cylinder research engine. To that end, four compression ratios were investigated: 10.8, 15.0, 17.7, and 20.6. With compression ratios of 15.0 and 17.7, the lean-limit was increased to excess air ratios of 2.0 and 2.1, respectively, compared to 1.7 at a compression ratio of 10.8. For the highest compression ratio of 20.6, the maximum lean burn limit was increased to an excess air ratio of 1.9 due to achieving the maximum cylinder pressure limit. Despite the minor increase in lean-limit, a maximum indicated efficiency of 48.7% was achieved with the highest compression ratio of 20.6. However, even at this high compression ratio, methanol did not show a knock limitation. The investigations in this work provide profound knowledge for future engine investigations with methanol.