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Alcohols for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines

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Prospects of Alternative Transportation Fuels

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

The balance between production and consumption of energy is an important factor, which drives future direction of energy resource development. This largely depends on the decision made by producers, consumers, and governments. The deciding factors for aforesaid choices are their cost, quality, reliability, convenience, and social impact. Globally, the most commonly used automotive technology includes Otto- and diesel-cycle engines. Consequently, their fuels are gasoline and diesel. “Alternative fuels” are those existing fuels, which are neither gasoline nor diesel. Commonly available alternative fuels are alcohols, vegetable oils, and their derivatives such as biodiesel, gaseous fuels (natural gas, hydrogen, and liquefied petroleum gas), ethers, etc. Alcohols are oxygenates of primary hydrocarbons with hydroxyl groups. Presence of oxygen in them contributes to smoothness of combustion process in the IC engines. This results in cleaner burning characteristics compared to fossil fuels. Also, alcohols can help in lowering emission of hazardous gases and can reduce dependency on non-renewable energy sources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

    Dev Prakash Satsangi, Nachiketa Tiwari & Avinash Kumar Agarwal

Authors
  1. Dev Prakash Satsangi
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  2. Nachiketa Tiwari
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  3. Avinash Kumar Agarwal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avinash Kumar Agarwal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Akhilendra P Singh

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rashmi Avinash Agarwal

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  4. School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Kamand, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Atul Dhar

  5. Automotive Fuels and Application Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Mritunjay Kumar Shukla

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Satsangi, D.P., Tiwari, N., Agarwal, A.K. (2018). Alcohols for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines. In: Singh, A., Agarwal, R., Agarwal, A., Dhar, A., Shukla, M. (eds) Prospects of Alternative Transportation Fuels. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7518-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7518-6_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7517-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7518-6

  • eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)

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