Optimization of Synthetic Oxygenated Fuels

Background Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources will require implementation of a variety of strategies, including improvements in the efficiency of overall vehicle/fuel systems, such as hybrid and new high-efficiency diesel engines, and use of synthetic fuels to replace or supplement petroleum-based fuels. A particularly attractive class of synthetic fuels is oxygenated liquid fuels. These oxygenated fuels are especially attractive for use in advanced diesel engines and diesel-hybrids because of the inherently high thermal efficiencies of these engines compared to spark ignition engines. In addition, these fuels offer significant potential for reduction in particulate and NOx emissions from diesel engines. The current strict regulations on these emissions have proved to be an impediment to introduction of diesel engines into the automotive and light truck sector in the United States. Hence, optimization of oxygenated fuels to be used either as a neat fuel or as an additive offers the prospects of reductions in GHG emissions owing to efficiency gains from advanced diesel engine concepts. Furthermore, if the desired fuels can be synthesized using bio-derived feedstocks, including traditional bio-diesel crops, crop waste and harvested crops, then a further benefit of low net carbon release could be achieved.