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The industrialization that increases day by day needs more and more power/fuel sources that are commonly available, abundant, renewable, and environmentally friendly. Recently, nearly all of the cities in China (PRC) have been influenced by haze. However, the pollutants from automobiles have always been seriously considered to be the main contamination causes of the haze and that influence human health. This study concerns the impact of hydrous ethanol on in-cylinder pressure, particulate matter (PM), and gaseous emissions (oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and unburned hydrocarbon (HC)) from a port fuel injection (PFI) gasoline engine. Tests were conducted on a four-cylinder port injection gasoline engine at different engine loads at an engine speed of 2000 rev/min for commercial gasoline, hydrous ethanol-gasoline blends (10% and 20% hydrous ethanol by volume), and an anhydrous ethanol-gasoline blend (20% anhydrous ethanol by volume). The results show that the peak in-cylinder pressure with the use of gasoline was the highest compared with the hydrous ethanol and anhydrous ethanol blends. Compared with the anhydrous ethanol blend, the hydrous ethanol blends performed well at a high load condition, equivalent to a low load. In addition, the total particulate number (PN) declines with an increase in engine operating loads for all of the fuels tested. The outcome of this study is an important reduction in PM number, mass emissions, and mean diameters of particles as the use of hydrous ethanol blends increases, while the form of the particulate size distribution remains the same. Furthermore, the NOx emission is raised with a rise in engine load, and NOx and HC emissions are reduced with the use of hydrous ethanol and anhydrous ethanol blend as equated with pure gasoline. Moreover, the correlation between the total particle number against NOx and HC has been found; the number of particles increases when the NOx emission decreases, and the opposite trend is exhibited for the HC emission. Therefore, it can be concluded that hydrous ethanol blends look to be a good selection for PM, NOx, and HC reduction for gasoline engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the serviceability of hydrous ethanol as a clean, cheap and green renewable substitute fuel for spark ignition engines and discusses the comparative chemical and physical properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels. The significant differences in the properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels are sufficient to create a significant change during the combustion phase of engine operation and consequently affect the performance of spark-ignition (SI) engines. The stability of ethanol-gasoline-water blends is also discussed. Furthermore, the effects of hydrous ethanol, and its blends with gasoline fuel on SI engine combustion characteristics, cycle-to-cycle variations, engine performance parameters, and emission characteristics have been highlighted. Higher water solubility in ethanol-gasoline blends may be obviously useful and suitable; nevertheless, the continuous ability of water to remain soluble in the blend is significantly affected by temperature. Nearly all published engine experimental results showed a significant improvement in combustion characteristics and enhanced engine performance for the use of hydrous ethanol as fuel. Moreover, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions were also significantly decreased. It is also worth pointing out that unburned hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide emissions were also reduced for the use of hydrous ethanol. However, unregulated emissions such as acetaldehyde and formaldehyde were significantly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]