Serrano, LuisChalaça, Dulio2025-07-162025-07-162018-06Serrano, Luis & Chalaça, Dulio. (2018). Optimization of engine performance for ethanol consumption. ECOS 2018 – 31st International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systemshttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/13681Ethanol is a fuel obtained from vegetable by-products becoming a promising substitute for gasoline in internal combustion engines. It is obtained by plants, which convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis, what implies that the carbon dioxide cycle is very short, since that the CO2 released by combustion can be withdrawn from the atmosphere on ethanol production. This is absolutely contrary to the fossil fuels consumption, which introduce carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that will only be taken off in billions of years cycle. The incentive for the present work had the genesis in the Student Formula team of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (FSIPLeiria) which has interest in get the advantages and disadvantages of the use of ethanol (E85) as fuel in the development of the next car prototype. The basis of this work is to optimize the engine of the FSIPLeiria team to run with ethanol. To attain this objective, it was used software to model the engine and to compare the final result with the experimental tests developed in order to obtain the validation of that model. This allow to find the best engine parameterization in order to get the best of it when he was fueled with E85, a mixture of 85% of ethanol and 15% of petrol. Taking into account the objectives of the team FSIPLeiria, a computational model using Ricardo Wave based on gasoline was developed to simulate the behavior of the engine and later study not only the influence of the ethanol but also other parameters that was necessary in view of the optimization of the engine when fueled by E85. Together with the software modeling, an experimental set-up was established to acquire data from the gsxr-600 engine under study in a chassis dynamometer, in order to validate the developed model and make able to draw conclusions about the use of ethanol as fuel. It was possible to develop software models with a relative error below 10% of the initial objective. A torque curve with a maximum deviation of 6.2% in the gasoline model and 8.5% in the model E85 was obtained, in relation to the experimental tests. Regarding the optimization process, it was possible to evaluate the effects of the increased compression ratio and the ignition timing, which revealed that it will be possible to obtain an increase in engine performance with the use of ethanol by correct adjustment of these parameters.engFormula Studentbiofuelsfuel consumptionEngine PerformanceInternal Combustion EnginesEthanolconference paper