Development of Bio-Mass Fuel for Small Displacement Engine to Reduce CO₂: Feasibility of Disposed Alcoholic Beverages as Bio-Mass Source

This study deals with bio-ethanol distilled from disposed alcoholic beverages. Through the various experiments while using a small displacement engine which is equipped with electric fuel injection (E.F.I.) system, the feasibility of the disposed alcoholic beverages; leftover-beer is investigated as one of the bio-mass sources. Currently bio-masses are classified into the following seven bio-mass sources, livestock excreta, sewage sludge, human waste sludge, waste of food, agricultural residue, wood-based (wood chips) bio-mass and crops. In those bio-mass sources, the authors pay their attention to the amount of leftover-beer after a banquet. Our investigation clarifies that about 12 l of beer is left and disposed after a banquet of 150 people. Since beer contains 5% alcohols, 600 cc of ethanol can be obtained without fermentation process. Thus in order to obtain alcohol as a fuel, in collaboration with some hotels, leftover-beer is collected. As to a fuel, higher concentration of distilled alcoholic beverages is preferable. Therefore a new double distillation system is developed to separate water, and 85.9% bio-ethanol fuel is produced from 5% alcoholic density of leftover-beer. The ethanol evaporation characteristic of this bio-ethanol is investigated, it is equal to 98% ethanol reagent. This showed that it can be mixed with gasoline. Also, in order to confirm its performance as a fuel, the obtained ethanol is experimented with 121 cc of small displacement engine which is equipped with E.F.I. system. The results of this experiment are compared to unleaded gasoline and showed that it has the same performance of engine power, especially in case of before top dead center (B.T.D.C.) 15.0 deg.. We also calculated the volume of CO₂ emission discharged in distilled ethanol under driving conditions B.T.D.C. 15.0 deg., 4000 rpm, for 1 hour. The CO₂ production of distilled ethanol is 34.4 kgCO₂, on the other hand, CO₂ production of unleaded gasoline is 2.82 kgCO₂. This result shows that the system with high energy efficiency to separate ethanol and water is desired. Furthermore, the density of acetaldehyde from exhaust gas is analyzed. An extremely low reading of 28 ppm is obtained. The results prove the effect of acetaldehyde to the human body is negligible. Finally, employing 50 cc motorcycles with our developed E.F.I. system, experiment with bio-mass ethanol is executed. The results proved the feasibility of our developed bio-ethanol can be a new low emission bio-mass source.