Comparative Effect of Gasoline Formulations on Fuel Economy and Emissions of Modern GDI Engine

In this paper the effect of gasoline formulations on fuel economy and emissions were studied, aiming at exploring the optimized fuel formulation that can alleviate energy crisis and greenhouse effect to some extent. Five gasoline blends with same research octane number (RON) were designed and tested on a calibrated gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine under the mapped characteristic conditions. Test results illustrate that the optimized fuel formulation shows good superiority in fuel economy, and reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at low engine speeds with medium loads. The brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) decreased by a maximum value of 3.26% mainly because of the improvement of combustion velocity and the optimization of low heating value. The optimized fuel formulation simultaneously increases total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions. Nevertheless, it also markedly reduces CO2 emissions, reaching the maximum value of 2.34%. The research results can be applied practically by refineries to reduce the CO2 emissions and to alleviate the greenhouse effect.