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One issue with running alcohol in a conventional spark ignited gasoline engine is compression. I think Indy cars run compression ratios around 14-16 to 1. The much higher octane rating of pure alcohol and even E85 allows much higher compression, which means you need to have the engine designed specifically for alcohol. It would be interesting to see if the Mazda SKY-Activ gasoline engine would utilise the higher octane of alcohol.
I wonder what an alcohol-diesel blend would do with the much higher compression of diesels? Just a guess, but you may also run into NOX issues with the higher compression.
I know Brazil has been using alcohol for decades. I wonder if there are engines used there that are designed for alcohol specific use?
regards
Mech
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