The Federal Methanol Fleet, initiated in 1985 with an appropriation from the US Congress, is now in its final stages of operation. A great deal has been learned while vehicles have accumulated approximately 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) in routine government fleet service. This paper summarizes those results that are technical in nature and that reveal the status of methanol engine technology. Specifically, results from emissions test, special lubricant tests, and cold-starting experiments are reported herein. Emissions control systems in methanol vehicles were found generally to decline somewhat in performance over time as compared to their gasoline counterpart vehicles, although this was not universally true. The severe effects on methanol engine lubricant performance resulting from cold-engine, short-trip service was demonstrated in a series of special tests of two cars, methanol and gasoline, in side-by-side service. Methanol fleet vehicles incorporated a variety of approaches to the cold-start problem -- ranging from no special engineering or systems to sophisticated systems designed to overcome the problem entirely. Cold-start systems specially designed for these vehicles did not perform as well as had been expected, probably because they were early prototype versions and were subject to some early, unforeseen problems.


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    Title :

    Federal Methanol Fleet: Summary of technical data


    Contributors:
    R. N. McGill (author) / R. L. Graves (author) / B. H. West (author) / J. W. Hodgson (author)

    Publication date :

    1991


    Size :

    17 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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