Intercooling effects of methanol on turbocharged diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions

From the viewpoint of utilizing methanol fuel in an automotive turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine, an intercooling system supplying liquid methanol has been devised and its effects on engine performance and exhaust gas emissions have been investigated. With an electronically controlled injector in this system, methanol as a supplementary fuel to diesel fuel can be injected into the intake pipe in order to intercool a hot air charge compressed by the turbocharger. It has been confirmed that especially at heavy load conditions, methanol-intercooling can yield a higher thermal efficiency, and lower NOx and smoke emissions simultaneously, compared with three other cases without using methanol: natural aspiration and the cases with and without an ordinary intercooler. However, methanol fueling must be avoided at lower loads since sacrifices in efficiency and hydrocarbon emissions are inevitably involved.