Title：Making Best Use of Ethanol Fuels
Time：10:00-11:00, Jan.8, 2019
Place：F310, School of Mechanical Engineering
Host：QI Fei, Professor (Institute of Internal Combustion Engine)

Biography

Dr Yi Yang (杨翼) is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. His research interests are combustion chemistry, low emission fuels, advanced combustion engines, and fuel/engine optimization. He received his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University and conducted his postdoctoral research in the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories. He joined the Engineering Faculty in the University of Melbourne in 2012. He is a member of the Combustion Institute and the Society of Automotive Engineers. He is an associated editor of the SAE International Journal of Engines and currently serves on the board of the Combustion Institute – Australia and New Zealand Section as the secretary.

Abstract
Ethanol as a fuel blending component is adopted worldwide for the excellent combustion properties and the potential to be produced from renewable resources. This talk discusses how adding ethanol to gasoline impacts the fuel properties, particularly autoignition, and the implications for maximizing the benefits of ethanol/gasoline blending. HCCI experiment is first presented to demonstrate that the autoignition of (neat) ethanol fits nearly perfectly to modern SI engine combustion. However, in blending with gasoline, octane ratings of the mixtures vary widely with the composition of baseline fuels, where synergistic blending is observed for ethanol mixtures with paraffinic fuels and antagonistic blending is observed with aromatic fuels. The suggested interaction chemistry is then investigated in a pressurized flow reactor and fundamental reaction mechanisms producing the "normal" and "abnormal" octane blending behaviours are explored.