Using Mass Spectrometry to Detect Ethanol and Acetaldehyde Emissions from a Direct Injection Spark Ignition Engine Operating on Ethanol/Gasoline Blends
Author(s)
Kar, Kenneth; Cheng, Wai
DownloadMain article (135.1Kb)
OPEN_ACCESS_POLICY
Open Access Policy
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Ethanol and acetaldehyde emissions from a direct ignition spark ignition were measured using mass spectrometry. Previous methods focused on eliminating or minimizing interference from exhaust species with identical atomic mass and fragment ions created in ionization process. This paper describes a new technique which exploits the fragment ions from ethanol and acetaldehyde. A survey of mass spectra of all major species of exhaust gas was conducted. It was found that ethanol contributes most ions in mass number 31 and that no other gas species produces ions at this mass number. Acetaldehyde detection suffers more interference. Nevertheless, it was estimated that detection at mass number 43 is possible with 10% error from 2-methylbutane.
This new technique was validated in an engine experiment. By running the engine with pure gasoline and E85, the validity of the technique can be checked. Two conditions were investigated: idling (1200 rpm, 1.5 bar NIMEP, retarded ignition timing) and medium load (1500 rpm, 3.8 bar NIMEP, MBT ignition timing). The results from both conditions confirmed that ions were only detected when E85 was used. Furthermore, the measured ethanol concentrations agree with results obtained using gas chromatography. However, acetaldehyde was overestimated greatly. It was possibly caused by ions with atomic mass 44 being miscounted or by the fact that the interference from 2-methybutane was much bigger than calculated. Further investigation is required.
Date issued
2011-04Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical EngineeringJournal
SAE 2011 World Congress & Exhibition
Publisher
SAE International
Citation
Kar, Kenneth, and Wai Cheng. “Using Mass Spectrometry to Detect Ethanol and Acetaldehyde Emissions from a Direct Injection Spark Ignition Engine Operating on Ethanol/Gasoline Blends." SAE 2011 World Congress & Exhibition, February 2011, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, SAE International, April 2011. © 2011 SAE International
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0148-7191
2688-3627