Emission Testing of Flex Fuel Vehicles up to M100/E100: Upgradation of Existing Test Facility for Vehicles below 3.5-ton GVW for Testing Methanol or Ethanol Operated Vehicles

This paper is focused on enhancing the existing dilute emission measurement system to accommodate the emission testing of vehicles operating with gasoline blends with methanol and ethanol, dedicated M100/E100 etc. India is moving towards achieving the E20 blend on the pan-country level by April 2025 with the initiations of NITI Aayog and exploring alternate fuels like 100% methanol and ethanol.Government of India is now focused on introducing the flex fuel vehicle (FFV) technology that supports the usage of higher ethanol blends.As per CMVR guidelines for M and N category vehicles with a gross vehicle weight less than 3,500 kg; a dilute emission measurement system is used to evaluate tailpipe pollutants and fuel economy.Most of the present emission systems are compatible with testing the vehicle till M15 and E20 blends.Beyond this percentage, usage of a test facility for M100, E100, and other flex-fuel vehicles, require certain modifications in existing test facility to maintain the precision and reliability of the results considering higher water content in exhaust and effect of condensation on emission measurement due to dilution.The modifications needed, implementation and their impact are experimentally briefed in the present paper.