• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.515-551
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• 2014

Recently, there has been a debate as to whether bioethanol should replace some portion of gasoline for fuels in South Korea, as energy security as well as climate change issues are rising as a significant national agenda. However, a considerable amount of subsidy will be required to compensate for the higher price of bioethanol-blended gasoline. In this context, government subsidy will obtain justification only when the positive social gains from consuming bioethanol for fuels can exceed the negative social costs. Through a nation-wide choice experimental survey, we examine if South Koreans have a positive value as well as non-linear preferences on substituting bioethanol for gasoline. The results reveal that the willingness to pay for purely domestic bioethanol-blended gasoline within 10% is about 52 KRW; Koreans have concave preferences on the blending ratio of bioethanol to gasoline. The turning point of the blending ratio of bioethanol was 6.5%. Also, we found inverse U-shaped curve between income and bioethanol choice probability and the turning point of the income was calculated as 250~299million KRW. Politically conservative propensity advocates uses of bioethanol blended gasoline, but awareness on bioethanol or more weights on environmental conservation have significantly negative effects on the choice of bioethanol. However, the design of the survey questionnaire is incompatible with the RFS of Korea and assumes orthogonality among the following four interrelated attributes: (i) domestic or offshore procurement of feedstocks in the case of domestic production, (ii) domestic production or import of bioethanol, (iii) the blending ratios, and (iv) the retail price increases. In addition, the results of model estimation and of model selection test are not definite. Hence, the results in this study should not be directly applied to the design of the specifics of the Korean RFS. Hence, the results in this study require cautions in applying to the design of the Korean RFS policy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.250-256
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• 2013

Gasoline generates organic acid and polymer (gum) by hydrocarbon oxidation depending on the storage environment such as temperature and exposure to sunlight, which can cause metal corrosion, rubber and resin degradation and vehicle malfunction caused by accumulation in fuel supply system. The gasoline which has not been used for a long time in bi-fuel (LPG-Gasoline) vehicle causes problems, and low octane number gasoline have evaporated into the field, but the exact cause has not been studied yet. In this study, we suggest a plan of quality management by investigating the gasoline oxidation behavior. In order to investigate the oxidation behavior of gasoline, changes of gasoline properties were analyzed at various storage conditions such as storage time, storage vessel type (vehicle fuel tank, PE vessel and Fe vessel) and storage circumstances (sunlight exposure and open system, etc.). Currently distributing gasoline and bioethanol blended fuel (blended 10%) were stored for 18 weeks in summer season. The sample stored in PE vessel was out of quality standard (octane number, vapor pressure, etc.) due to the evaporation of the high octane number and low boiling point components through the vessel cap and surface. Especially, the sunlight exposure sample stored in PE vessel showed rapid decrease of vapor pressure and increase of gum. Bioethanol blended fuel showed similar results as gasoline.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.82-89
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• 2009

In order to investigate the spray characteristics according to diesel and bioethanol blending with biodiesel fuel, macroscopic spray characteristics were analyzed from the comparison of the effect of the injection pressure, ambient pressure and density on the spray tip penetration and spray cone angle. In addition, spray atomization characteristics were studied with local and overall Sauter mean diameter (SMD) and the contour map of SMD distribution at various injection conditions. It was revealed that the spray tip penetration of biodiesel fuels blended with diesel and ethanol was shorter than that of an undiluted biodiesel fuel at low injection pressure. However, the difference of spray tip penetration among three test fuels reduces at a high injection pressure. Increase of the ambient gas density leads to the decrease of the spray tip penetration of three test fuels. When diesel and ethanol fuels add to an undiluted biodiesel fuel, spray cone angle increases due to the decrease of the fuel density at the same ambient pressure condition. On the other hand, the droplet mean diameter decreases due to the reduction of the kinematic viscosity and surface tension.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.155-166
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• 2014

This review will be concentrated on the spray characteristics of bioethanol and its derived fuels such as ethanol-diesel, ethanol-biodiesel in compression ignition (CI) engines. The difficulty in meeting the severe limitations on NOx and PM emissions in CI engines has brought about many methods for the application of ethanol because ethanol diffusion flames in engine produce virtually no soot. The most popular method for the application of ethanol as a fuel in CI engines is the blending of ethanol with diesel. The physical properties of ethanol and its derivatives related to spray characteristics such as viscosity, density and surface tension are discussed. Viscosity and density of e-diesel and e-biodiesel generally are decreased with increase in ethanol content and temperature. More than 22% and 30% of ethanol addition would not satisfied the requirement of viscosity and density in EN 590, respectively. Investigation of neat ethanol sprays in CI engines was conducted by very few researchers. The effect of ambient temperature on liquid phase penetration is a controversial topic due to the opposite result between two studies. More researches are required for the spray characteristics of neat ethanol in CI engines. The ethanol blended fuels in CI engines can be classified into ethanol-diesel blend (e-diesel) and ethanol-biodiesel (e-biodiesel) blend. Even though dodecanol and n-butanol are rarely used, the addition of biodiesel as blend stabilizer is the prevailing method because it has the advantage of increasing the biofuel concentration in diesel fuel. Spray penetration and SMD of e-diesel and e-biodiesel decrease with increase in ethanol concentration, and in ambient pressure. However, spray angle is increased with increase in the ethanol percentage in e-diesel. As the ambient pressure increases, liquid phase penetration was decreased, but spray angle was increased in e-diesel. The increase in ambient temperature showed the slight effect on liquid phase penetration, but spray angle was decreased. A numerical study of micro-explosion concluded that the optimum composition of e-diesel binary mixture for micro-explosion was approximately E50D50, while that of e-biodiesel binary mixture was E30B70 due to the lower volatility of biodiesel. Adding less volatile biodiesel into the ternary mixture of ethanol-biodiesel-diesel can remarkably enhance micro-explosion. Addition of ethanol up to 20% in e-biodiesel showed no effect on spray penetration. However, increase of nozzle orifice diameter results in increase of spray penetration. The more study on liquid phase penetration and SMD in e-diesel and e-biodiesel is required.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.82-88
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• 2011

Lean combustion and exhaust emission characteristics in a ethanol fueled spark-ignited engine according to ethanol-gasoline fuel blending ratio were investigated. The test engine was $1591cm^3$ and 10.5 of compression ratio SI engine with 4 cylinders. In addition, lambda sensor system was connected with universal ECU to control the lambda value which is varied from 1.0 to 1.5. The engine performance and lean combustion characteristics such as brake torque, cylinder pressure and rate of heat release were investigated according to ethanol-gasoline fuel blending ratio. Furthermore, the exhaust emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$) and carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) were measured by emission analyzers. The results showed that the brake torque, cylinder pressure and the stability of engine operation were increased as ethanol blending ratio is increased. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was increased in higher ethanol blending ratio while brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) was decreased in higher ethanol blending ratio. The exhaust emissions were decreased as ethanol blending ratio is increased under overall experimental conditions, however, some specific exhaust emission characteristics were mainly influenced by lambda value and ethanol-gasoline fuel blending ratio.