We demand octane: Octane-on-Demand

Add Saudi Aramco’s Dimensions International to your list of breakthrough journals.  Here are excerpts from a recent article describing Aramco’s research into a concept labeled Octane-on-Demand …

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Dimensions International, Summer 2017
Aramco Fuel Research Center presents Octane-on-Demand Vehicle
by Niall A. Higgins
[Excerpts from the article]
Saudi Aramco’s commitment to technological innovation was in full view earlier this year, when the Aramco Fuel Research Center (AFRC) in Paris presented the latest development in its energy efficient, Octane-on-Demand (OoD) demonstration vehicle. The Octane-on-Demand demonstration vehicle is based on a production Peugeot 308 passenger vehicle. The AFRC team added a second fuel tank and fuel delivery system to the vehicle to accommodate the dual fuel setup.
AFRC, which has a collaborative research agreement with the prestigious French energy research institute IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN), has been working on the project since July 2013.
“The objective of this project was to demonstrate that advanced engine fuel technologies can reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of conventional passenger vehicles,” said AFRC director, Pierre Olivier Calendini.
The OoD concept is a synergistic engine fuel technology that uses two fuels with different octane quality to match the specific requirements of the engine at different operating conditions. An oil-derived fuel is used for engine starting and most urban driving, while a small amount of the high octane fuel is delivered to the engine under more extreme driving conditions to suppress engine “knock.” This combination enables the engine to operate more efficiently than it could otherwise do using only the oil-derived fuel. The technology has been fine-tuned over the last four years in a joint effort between the research teams in Paris and Dhahran — Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco research scientist Kai Morganti prepares the combustion laboratory in Dhahran to evaluate different fuels for the Octane-on-Demand concept.
Ammar A. Al-Nahwi, manager at the Research and Development Center (R&DC) in Dhahran said, “Octane-on- Demand is an opportunity to improve fuel efficiency by making the most effective use of the available fuel octane quality. This could also have implications for the refining industry, since it may reduce the amount of energy required to manufacture fuels in the future.”
Over the last four years, in-house engine testing in Dhahran and Paris has evaluated a broad range of fuels and engine combinations. This has included four different oil-derived fuels in combination with five different high octane fuels (MTBE, ETBE, methanol, anhydrous ethanol, and hydrous ethanol).
Saudi Aramco’s researchers in Paris and Dhahran are currently working on the next phase of the project, which involves developing an onboard fuel separation system. This system will be capable of producing the two fuels onboard the vehicle using today’s market fuels.
source: http://www.saudiaramco.com/en/home/news-media/publications/dimensions-international.html
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TIP: Search the USPTO (http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html) patent database. Your search may require some creativity.  As you may have noticed, the direct approach doesn’t always work.  Here is a result using the following search string …

USPTO Patent Search String: AN/nouvelles AND ABST/octane

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9,309,818
Method of controlling operation of an engine that can use a single-fuel of a multi-fuel combustion mode
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method of controlling operation of an internal-combustion engine using a single-fuel or a multi-fuel combustion mode with at least one fuel type comprising a high octane number and a low energy density and at least another fuel type comprising a low octane number and a high energy density, a method wherein the energy required for the engine to operate in multi-fuel mode is provided by a combination of two fuel types. According to the invention, for engine operation in multi-fuel mode, the method consists in: determining the set values of the overall energy density and of the overall octane number resulting from the combination of fuels, feeding into the combustion chamber said fuels with a proportion intended to reach the set values, evaluating the real values of the overall energy density and/or of the overall octane number of said fuels, in case of a difference between the set values and the real values, in compensating for this difference by varying the proportion of at least one of the fuels so as to obtain the set energy density and/or octane number.
Inventors:
Monnier; Gaetan (Aigremont, FR) 
source: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=9,309,818.PN.&OS=PN/9,309,818&RS=PN/9,309,818
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TIP: Google®: octane on demand
One result …

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Octane-on-Demand as an Enabler for Highly Efficient Spark Ignition Engines and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Improvement
Paper #: 2015-01-1264
Published: 2015-04-14
DOI: 10.4271/2015-01-1264
Citation:
Chang, J., Viollet, Y., Alzubail, A., Abdul-Manan, A. et al., "Octane-on-Demand as an Enabler for Highly Efficient Spark Ignition Engines and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Improvement," SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-1264, 2015, https://doi.org/10.4271/2015-01-1264.
Authors:
Junseok Chang, Yoann Viollet, Abdullah Alzubail, Amir Faizal Naidu Abdul-Manan, Abdullah Al Arfaj
Affiliated: Saudi Aramco
Abstract:
This paper explores the potential for reducing transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by introducing high-efficiency spark-ignition engines with a dual-fuel injection system to customize the octane of the fuels based on real-time engine requirements. It is assumed that a vehicle was equipped with two fuel tanks and two injection systems; one port fuel injection and one direct injection line separately. Each tank carried low octane and high octane fuel so that real-time octane blending was occurred in the combustion chamber when needed (Octane On-Demand: OOD). A refinery naphtha was selected for low octane fuel (RON=61), because of its similarity to gasoline properties but a less processed, easier to produce without changing a refinery configuration. Three oxygenates were used for high octane knock-resistant fuels in a direct injection line: methanol, MTBE, and ETBE. Single cylinder engine tests were conducted to obtain a specific fuel consumption map and an optimum octane map in each dual fuel combination. Tank-to-wheel vehicle fuel consumption was estimated using a vehicle simulation tool under four driving cycles (FTP city and highway, WLTP, and US06), to cover a wide range of driving circumstances. For the vehicle with a naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engine, total dual fuel consumption were improved over baseline gasoline single fuel up to 4% reduction in mass with all driving cycles except for US06. More importantly, only less than 15% oxygenate was required for those three cycles. As a result, blending RON was only in the range of 66∼73, significantly below current gasoline octane levels in the market. A Well-to-Wheels (W-t-W) GHG emissions assessment was conducted to estimate the overall emissions benefits of the dual fuel system. W-t-W carbon intensity was reduced up to 18% relative to the single gasoline fuel system when crude naphtha is used as a low octane fuel. However, if a pathway for naphtha and oxygenate are chosen different than petroleum source, for example, natural gas feed Fischer-Tropsch naphtha and coal base methanol, GHG emissions are worse than baseline case. When the dual fuel system was combined with downsized boosted engine technology, synergic benefit was obtained maximum 30% W-t-W CO2eq reduction (15% from downsizing, 10% from mitigating knock via a high octane component and 5% from minimizing octane upgrade process in the refinery). Therefore, a suggested OOD system can be a potential mobility solution for a future fuel and engine system. It not only provides a desirable high octane quality fuel for a high boost and high compression ratio engine, but also mitigates a revolutionary change in the refinery with a low octane naphtha fuel.
source: http://papers.sae.org/2015-01-1264/
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