Transportation of people and goods largely relies on the use of fossil hydrocarbons, contributing to global warming and problems with local air quality. There are a number of alternatives to fossil fuels that can avoid a net carbon emission and can also decrease pollutant emissions. However, many have significant difficulty in competing with fossil fuels due to either limited availability, limited energy density, high cost, or a combination of these. Methanol (CH 3 OH) is one of these alternatives, which was demonstrated in large fleet trials during the 1980s and 1990s, and is currently again being introduced in various places and applications. It can be produced from fossil fuels, but also from biomass and from renewable energy sources in carbon capture and utilization schemes. It can be used in pure form or as a blend component, in internal combustion engines (ICEs) or in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). These features added to the fact it is a liquid fuel, making it an efficient way of storing and distributing energy, make it stand out as one of the most attractive scalable alternatives. This review focuses on the use of methanol as a pure fuel or blend component for ICEs. First, we introduce methanol historically, briefly introduce the various methods for its production, and summarize health and safety of using methanol as a fuel. Then, we focus on its use as a fuel for ICEs. The current data on the physical and chemical properties relevant for ICEs are reviewed, highlighting the differences with fuels such as ethanol and gasoline. These are then related to the research reported on the behaviour of methanol and methanol blends in spark ignition and compression ignition engines. Many of the properties of methanol that are significantly different from those of for example gasoline (such as its high heat of vaporization) lead to advantages as well as challenges. Both are extensively discussed. Methanol's performance, in terms of power output, peak and part load efficiency, and emissions formation is summarized, for so-called flex-fuel engines

The paper discusses the concept, design and final results from the 'Ultra Boost for Economy' collaborative project, which was part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK's innovation agency. The project comprised industry-and academiawide expertise to demonstrate that it is possible to reduce engine capacity by 60% and still achieve the torque curve of a modern, large-capacity naturally-aspirated engine, while encompassing the attributes necessary to employ such a concept in premium vehicles.In addition to achieving the torque curve of the Jaguar Land Rover naturally-aspirated 5.0 litre V8 engine (which included generating 25 bar BMEP at 1000 rpm), the main project target was to show that such a downsized engine could, in itself, provide a major proportion of a route towards a 35% reduction in vehicle tailpipe CO 2 on the New European Drive Cycle, together with some vehicle-based modifications and the assumption of stop-start technology being used instead of hybridization. In order to do this vehicle modelling was employed to set part-load operating points representative of a target vehicle and to provide weighting factors for those points. The engine was sized by using the fuel consumption improvement targets and a series of specification steps designed to ensure that the required full-load performance and driveability could be achieved.The engine was designed in parallel with 1-D modelling which helped to combine the various technology packages of the project, including the specification of an advanced charging system and the provision of the necessary variability in the valvetrain system. An advanced intake port was designed in order to ensure the necessary flow rate and the charge motion to provide fuel mixing and help suppress knock, and was subjected to a full transient CFD analysis. A new engine management system was provided which necessarily had to be capable of controlling many functions, including a supercharger engagement clutch and full bypass system, direct injection system, port-fuel injection system, separately-switchable cam profiles for the intake and exhaust valves and wide-range fast-acting camshaft phasing devices.

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Downsized, highly boosted, gasoline direct injection engines are becoming the preferred gasoline engine technology to ensure that increasingly stringent fuel economy and emissions legislation are met. The Ultraboost project engine is a 2.0-L in-line four-cylinder prototype engine, designed to have the same performance as a 5.0-L V8 naturally aspirated engine but with reduced fuel consumption. It is important to examine particle number emissions from such extremely highly boosted engines to ensure that they are capable of meeting current and future emissions legislation. The effect of such high boosting on particle number emissions is reported in this article for a variety of operating points and engine operating parameters. The effect of engine load, air-fuel ratio, fuel injection pressure, fuel injection timing, ignition timing, inlet air temperature, exhaust gas recirculation level, and exhaust back pressure has been investigated. It is shown that particle number emissions increase with increase in cooled, external exhaust gas recirculation and engine load, and decrease with increase in fuel injection pressure and inlet air temperature. Particle number emissions are shown to fall with increased exhaust back pressure, a key parameter for highly boosted engines. The effects of these parameters on the particle size distributions from the engine have also been evaluated. Significant changes to the particle size spectrum emitted from the engine are seen depending on the engine operating point. Operating points with a bias towards very small particle sizes were noted.