Fuel structure effects on HC emissions from a spark-ignited engine

This paper reports that tailpipe emissions are a critical consideration in the design process of automobiles because of government regulations based on environmental concerns. To meet these standards, the combined effects of engine design, catalyst design, and fuel composition on regulation emissions must be understood. The effects of variable related to engine design (e.g. crevice volumes, oil films, and fuel-air equivalence ratio) on hydrocarbon (HC) emissions have been investigated. However, systematic studies of the effect of fuel composition on emissions have not been pursued as thoroughly. In particular, no extensive experiments have been performed using pure fuels in the same engine in order to carefully compare the effect of fuel structure on emissions under nearly identical engine operating conditions