Study of a cold start fuel produced by an active vapor utilization system for use in gasoline powered vehicles

Simple item page
dc.contributorPuzinauskas, P.
dc.contributorRitchie, Stephen M. C.
dc.contributor.advisorAshford, Marcus D.
dc.contributor.authorCrawford, John William
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2017-02-28T22:20:23Z
dc.date.available2017-02-28T22:20:23Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractThis research focuses on the continuous development of the Active Vapor Recovery System (AVUS) which has the potential to reduce unburned hydrocarbon emissions from automobiles. The AVUS collects, condenses and stores hydrocarbon vapors from the fuel tank and saves them in a pressurized storage tank for later use as a cold starting fuel. This highly volatile starting fuel has the capability to reduce tailpipe emissions that occur during cold starts, as well as evaporative emissions that occur while the vehicle is at rest. Instead of commercial gasoline, the bench top AVUS was run using a five component fuel composed of 25% iso-pentane, 17.5% hexane, 17.5% heptanes, 17.5% toluene, and 22.5% isooctane; as well as an E85 mixture composed of 15% five component fuel and 85% ethanol. The condensate produced from AVUS was then analyzed using simple gas chromatograph techniques and found to have as much as 75% iso-pentane. Such a mixture would be an excellent starting fuel. Successive tests on the same batch of fuel proved that AVUS can produce this starting fuel without depleting the parent fuel of the species needed for non-AVUS starts. Index of refraction and infrared tests were also used in an attempt to establish reliable correlations between the condensate composition, refractive index, and infrared absorption that could be used for onboard analysis of the starting fuel. However, index of refraction results were found to be inconclusive while infrared testing proved to have great potential for determining alcohol concentration.en_US
dc.format.extent114 p.
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0000010
dc.identifier.otherCrawford_alatus_0004M_10022
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/517
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectAutomotive engineering
dc.subjectMechanical engineering
dc.titleStudy of a cold start fuel produced by an active vapor utilization system for use in gasoline powered vehiclesen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Mechanical Engineering
etdms.degree.disciplineMechanical Engineering
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.levelmaster's
etdms.degree.nameM.S.
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
file_1.pdf
Size:
1.59 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Collections
Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations - Department of Mechanical Engineering