Author(s)

Chung-How Poh, Chung-Kiak Poh

Aero-Persistence Research, Penang, Malaysia.

Gasoline engines are increasingly popular for use in small unmanned aircraft requiring endurance due to the specific energy of gasoline (47.3 MJ·kg^-1) and its cost effectiveness. However, gasoline is volatile and it poses a health hazard. In this work, isopropanol is proposed and investigated as viable fuel for small gasoline engines. Isooctane is used as a benchmark for performance comparison. The field testing reveals that isopropanol offers similar running performance and ease of starting. The maximum output power of isopropanol is surprisingly found to occur at a more advanced ignition timing compared with isooctane. The significant outcome of this study is that isopropanol can readily be used as a replacement fuel for existing engines without the need for any modifications to the ignition module or the engine itself.

Isopropanol, Spark Ignition Engine, Small Unmanned Aircraft

Poh, C. and Poh, C. (2017) Isopropanol as Fuel for Small Unmanned Aircraft. Advances in Aerospace Science and Technology, 2, 23-30. doi: 10.4236/aast.2017.23003.