Increasing numbers of standards for emissions and fuel economy drive the need to downsize internal combustion engines. To accommodate this change while reducing engine knock, fuels with higher octane numbers are needed. However, studies have shown that octane requirements are not uniform across the vehicle drive cycle, leading to inefficient use of the high-octane fuel components. One approach shown to substantially increase fuel economy through the efficient use of high-octane fuel components, is a dual-fuel solution called octane-on-demand. Octane-on-demand supplies fuel that has the required octane rating, as dictated by the engine power demands, by delivering the proper ratio of high- and low-octane fuels. Barriers associated with introducing two fuels in the marketplace for an octane-on-demand approach can be overcome using an onboard separation system to separate a single fuel, such as market E10 gasoline, into a high-octane oxygenate, like ethanol, and a lower-octane base fuel. Onboard separation systems currently under evaluation rely on pervaporation membranes, which lose efficiency as the oxygenate is removed, leading to loss of this valuable fuel component. Here, we present chemical separation strategies that may provide advantages over membrane separation beyond ethanol to potential future oxygenate additives, such as isomers of butanol.

Octane-on-demand: Onboard separation of oxygenates from gasoline

2019 Spring National Meeting

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