DefinePK

Abstract

Alternative fuels on internal combustion engine (ICE) recently becomes an attention due to the concern on environment protection, needs on reducing dependency on fossil fuels and meets current stringent regulation. Methanol is one of the attractive alternative fuel due to its ability to produce from a renewable resources and it is oxygenated, therefore it has the potential to achieve better engine performance and emission in spark ignition engine. Currently, only few of research paper discuss the methanol fuel in the collective form of information including adverse effect of methanol usages and responses in spark ignition engine performance and emissions. Due to this reason, this paper will focus on the applications and challenges with recent literature data of methanol fuel specifically for spark ignition engines. The first part of this review will be discuss on the advantages and disadvantages of the application of methanol fuels. Also discuss is the published research result on the engine performance and emission using methanol-gasoline fuel blends. The second part will focus on the recent trends and challenges in the research of methanol fuels for the past ten years. The findings show further improvements need to be done on current methanol fuel in areas such as; specifying acceptable range for current gasoline engine operation, ensuring safety in storing and handling methanol-gasoline blends, and validating the long term effects of the fuel compatibility.