Speciation of Organic By-Products from the Thermal Decomposition of Alternative Automotive Fuels.

The high-temperature thermal degradation of four alternative automotive fuels (methanol, ethanol, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum (LP) gas) have been examined as a function of fuel-oxygen equivalence ratio and exposure temperature using fused silica flow reactor instrumentation coupled to in-line GC-TCD and GC-MS detection. Organic speciation for methanol, natural gas, and LP gas were consistent with previous measurements. However, several previously undetected organic by-products were observed from ethanol oxidation and pyrolysis.