EP0095823A1

EP0095823A1 - Additives for alcohol fuel and their manufacture

Info

Publication number: EP0095823A1
Application number: EP83300341A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Chuan Chen Yang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1982-05-31
Filing date: 1983-01-24
Publication date: 1983-12-07
Also published as: JPS6152198B2; BR8205153A; JPS58208387A

Abstract

An aqueous solution consisting mainly of an essential oil ingredient and water is obtained by immersing chips of at least one kind of herb in hot water of 70-90 °C for about 30 minutes. This solution is added, either as it is or concentrated, to a lower alkanol. The resulting mixture is a fuel for internal combustion engines which is comparable to petrol, and far superior to pure alcohol in performance and in not causing corrosion. It can contain 30% of water.

For example, a car fuelled with a mixture of methanol (78%), water (20.8%) and an extract (1.2%) achieved 3.41 km/l, whereas on pure methanol it achieved only 3.04 km/l.

Description

The present invention relates to additives useful for improving the drawbacks of alcohol fuels, and to a method of manufacturing such additives. More particularly, the present invention pertains to additives for alcohol fuel which contain, as their ingredients, extracts of certain herbs; to a method of manufactur- i_ng such additives; and to fuels containing them.
In view of the limited availability of fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal, and also of the recent sharp increase in the amount of consumption of such fuels, alcohol fuel has, of late, been attracting the interest of the concerned as a fuel especially for internal combustion engines for the reason that it is considered to be infinitely available.
In this specification, "alcohol" means such lower alkanols as methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. They may be obtainable through fermentation or chemical processes from botanical sources such as starch and cellulose which, in turn, can be produced through cultivation of herbs.
While petroleum and coal which are fossil fuels are comprised mainly of hydrocarbon, alcohol has an O_H group. Therefore, the calorific value of alcohol is smaller than that of hydrocarbon. This fundamental difference of alcohol over hydrocarbon gives rise to inconveniences and drawbacks, in various aspects, when alcohol is used as a fuel, especially for internal combustion engines. For example, when alcohol alone is used as a fuel for an automobile engine, the driver cannot achieve a quick acceleration of speed, or there may arise local corrosion of metal portions of the engine which will become apparent in about three months of use of alcohol fuel. Also, alcohol tends to cause a swelling of rubber packing when the latter is contacted by alcohol. Owing to the small calorific value of alcohol, the distance covered per unit amount of alcohol fuel is small as compared with gasoline.
Thus, there has been a demand for the development of means to more effectively utilize the energy of alcohol, in spite of the drawbacks peculiar to alcohol fuel.
According to the present invention in a first aspect there is provided an additive for alcohol fuel comprising an effective component consisting of an aqueous extract containing an essential oil ingredient and obtained from at least one kind of herb containing said essential oil ingredient.
In further aspects the invention provides a method for preparing the additive, and a fuel containing it. The fuel is based on alcohol, e.g. methanol, ethanol, or a mixture thereof, or methanol- butanol.
The present invention seeks to ameliorate at least some of the drawbacks mentioned above, and to achieve at least some of the following objects:-

to provide an additive which improves the fuel efficiency of alcohol fuel, i.e. achievement of increase in the distance covered by an automobile per unit volume of alcohol fuel;
to provide an additive for alcohol fuel which prevents or lessens corrosion of metal portions of an engine which uses alcohol fuel;
to provide an additive which improves the acceleration ability of alcohol fuel for an engine;
to provide an additive which prevents or lessens the swelling of a rubber packing when contacted by alcohol fuel;
to provide an additive which may be stored stably;
to provide an additive which eliminates the need for alcohol used as a fuel to be absolute.

During extensive researches conducted by the present inventor to eliminate or improve the above-mentioned inconveniences and drawbacks of conventional alcohol fuel, he discovered by chance the fact that by using extracts of certain kinds of herbs in the form of an aqueous solution as an additive to alcohol fuel, the above-mentioned inconveniences and drawbacks of alcohol fuel are remarkably improved.
The herbs from which are obtained the required extracts constituting the additive are limited to those containing an essential oil component. However, what effective ingredients the hot water extracts of the herbs contain, and also the theoretical elucidation of the relationship between the effective substances of the extracts of herbs and the elimination of the drawbacks of conventional alcohol fuel, have not been made clear yet. Nevertheless, the_results of many experiments conducted by the present inventor are sufficient to demonstrate the abovesaid remarkable effect, and discovery indeed assures an outstanding improvement in the field of art to which the present invention belongs. Therefore, the present invention provides very advantageous new additives for alcohol fuel.
The additives for alcohol fuel according to the present invention are each comprised of one or more effective components which are provided in the form of an aqueous solution of extracts obtained from one or more kinds of herbs containing essential oil components. Such component-containing aqueous solution can be easily manufactured by immersing small chips of one or more kinds of essential oil-containing herbs in hot water of 70 - 90°C for about 30 minutes for the purpose of extraction or exudation of effective ingredients from the chips into the hot water.
The preferred herbs containing the effective components which constitute the additive ingredients of the present invention for alcohol fuel are those herbs belonging to the families listed in Table 1. They include: Umbelliferae, Compositae, Araceae, Santalaceae, Lauraceae, Rutaceae, Magnoliaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Labiatae, Zingibera-.. ceae, Piperaceae, Liliaceae, Polygalaceae, Cyperaceae, Valerianaceae, Pinaceae and Gramineae.
The effective ingredients are contained in the root, stem and leaves of these herbs. Although the amount of the effective components which are contained in these herbs varies with the kind of herb, any of the effective ingredients extracted from these specific herbs can be used for the purpose of the present invention.
In Table 1 are mentioned the names of the herbs, and the chemical names of ingredients contained therein. As to their details, reference should be made to Genshoku Wakan Yaku Zukan (Color Picture Book of Japanese-Chinese Pharmaceuticals) (in 2 volumes) by Tsuneo NANBA, published by Kabushiki Kaisha Hoikusha.
Since the additives according to the present .. invention are extracts from herbs, they themselves are provided in the form of an aqueous solution. When such an additive is to be added to alcohol fuel, it can be added together with the solvent water. The alcohol does not require to be absolute alcohol. Alcohol which contains water in an amount up to about 25% by volume, and to which has been added an additive of the present invention which also contains water can be used satisfactorily as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Therefore, the additives which are prepared according to the present invention can contribute greatly industrially.
The additives for alcohol fuel according to the present invention may be manufactured as described below. At least one selected herb is, preferably, cut into small chips or pieces, and they are immersed in hot water of 70 to 90°C in an amount of about 10 times the weight of the herb chips. That is, if the weight of the herb chips or pieces is 10kg, the amount of hot water in which the chips are immersed is about 10 liters. Ingredients may be extracted in one step or two or rmre, as required. After filtering the chips- containing water, there remains about 8 liters of aqueous solution of extracted ingredients. The resulting aqueous solution per se may be used as an additive to alcohol fuel.
In general, it is preferred to concentrate the 8 liters of extracts to about 1/4 to 1/3 thereof, preferably under a reduced pressure, to preserve or store in the form of a concentrated liquid. There is a risk that such solutions may putrefy or decompose with time. Therefore, an amount of alcohol which is to be used as a fuel is added , and thus putrefaction of the raw liquid can be prevented. The aqueous extract solution generally dissolves completely in alcohol to form a transparent liquid. The amount of water contained in the extract solution may affect the water content of the alcohol fuel per se to which the solution is added. In general, the extract ingredients exuded in hot water, which is the non-concentrated raw extract aqueous solution, may be directly added to alcohol at a proportion of 1.2 - 4.0% by volume relative to the volume of alcohol, and if the solution is of a 1/4 concentration, it may be added to alcohol at a proportion of 0.3 - 1.0% by volume.
If a water-containing alcohol whose alcohol: water volume ratio is 70 : 30 to 81 : 19 is usedalone asa fuel of an automobile engine, the engine will stop immediately after ignition, and thus such water-containing alcohol cannot be used as a fuel. However, when the additive according to the present invention is added, in such volume as mentioned above, to a water-containing alcohol (ethanol) whose water content is of the order as mentioned above., there is obtained a surprising result that the distance covered by an automobile per unit volume of said alcohol fuel increases 1.5 times, or 50%, the distance covered by an automobile using absolute alcohol.
By using the alcohol fuel containing an additive according to the present invention, there is not noted any corrosion of the metal portions of the engine. The inclusion of an additive, has an immediate effect. After storage for an extended period of time, there has been noted substantially no change in the effect of the additive. Such preserved additive has been noted to be useful also in enabling satisfactory acceleration of automobile engines.
Although there is a trivial difference in the effect of the additive depending on the kind of the herbs from which the extracts are obtained, it has been confirmed that the extract of any kind of herb of said specific group exhibits a satisfactory effect as an additive for alcohol fuel. Also, it has been confirmed that an extract liquid obtained from a single kind of herb produces an almost same effect.
Next, description will be made of examples and tests of the additives of the present invention as compared with controls.

Example 1

100g each of 6 kinds of herbs (No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 6, No. 9 and No. 14 in Table l)as the starting chips of herbs containing essential oil components (i.e. a total of 600g) were immersed in 4 liters of water, and the water was heated to 80°C, and the contents were left therein for about 30 minutes to extract the effective ingredients in the hot water. After cooling the resulting water, it was filtered to collect the liquid. Then, the filtered chips were again immersed in the same way in 2 liters of water with heating. The filtered liquid obtained from this second batch was added to the first batch of filtered liquid, and thus about 4.8 liters of extract-containing liquid was obtained. This filtered liquid containing effective ingredients was concentrated to 1/4 in volume by evaporation at a reduced atmospheric pressure such as in vacuum, and thus 1.2 liters of concentrated aqueous solution was obtained. This concentrated liquid, as it is, can be used as an additive of the present invention for alcohol fuel. Test 1
An actual driving test was conducted on ethanol fuel added with said additive of the present invention by using an automobile (Laurel 2000cc of 1979 model, made by Nissan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.). "%" is expressed as volumetric percentage. A: alcohol fuel composed of 75% of ethanol + 24.5% of water + 0.5% of an additive of the present invention. B: alcohol fuel composed of 75% of ethanol + 25% of water. C: Gasoline
When the ethanol fuel of A or B was used, adjustment was made so that compression ratio was 8 or 9 : 1, mixing ratio was 8 or 9 : 1, and ignition time took place 5°C earlier than in case of gasoline.
In case of A, the car ran exactly in the same way as in case of using gasoline as the fuel, and no abnormal finding was noted. The behaviour was as for gasoline fuel, both at a high speed run and at a low speed run as well, with no abnormal finding. The distance covered was 4.3km.
In case of B, the engine stopped immediately after ignition. Thus, B could not be used as a fuel for engines.
In csae of C which was the instance wherein gasoline was used, the distance covered was 7.6km.

Example 2

The relationship between the water content of the ethanol-based fuel added with the additive of Example 1 and the additive content was tested by using the same type of automobile as that for Example 1. The result obtained is shown in Table 2 together with the result of controls. In Table 2,

Example 3

Ethanol fuel was replaced by methanol fuel, and the latter was added with the additive obtained in Example 1, excepting that the additive was the original liquid not concentrated. The relationship between the water content of fuel and the additive content was compared under the same condition as that for Example 2. The result is shown in Table 3. The measurement of methanol efficiency was conducted in the same manner as for ethanol efficiency.
From the above result, it has been found that the inclusion of the additive of the present invention improved the methanol efficiency of the methanol fuel 1.46 times. Also, the distance (km/ℓ) covered by the use of methanol- based fuel with added butanol showed 3.96km, which was the maximum value. This fact shows that a mixed alcohol such as methanol, ethanol and butanol can effectively use the additive of the present invention, and that by doing so, the calorific value can be varied.

Example 4

A total of 1000g of herb chips comprising 100g each of 10 different kinds of herbs containing essential oil components and selected from 10 different families (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 21 mentioned in Table l)was used as the starting material. This material was immersed in 6 liters of water, and was heated to 80°C, and the contents were left therein to stand for about 30 minutes, and thus about 8 liters of extract-containing liquid were obtained in a manner similar to Example 1. This liquid was added to ethanol and methanol alcohol fuels, respectively, with or without concentration up to 1/4. The resultant respective batches of alcohol fuels were tested in such manners as described in Examples 1, 2 and 3. The result was found to be well comparable to those of these examples.

Example 5

Extract-containing liquids (not concentrated) were. prepared in a manner similar to that of Example 1 from various kinds of essential oil-containing herbs. These additive liquids were blended to ethanol and methanol in the following manner.
The igniting ability, speed accelerating ability, running ability and fuel efficiency of the respective fuel groups mentioned above were tested by using the same automobile of Example 1, and the result is shown in Table 4. Comparative tests were conducted on instances wherein each additive of each extract was used singly, and also on instances wherein the additives were mixed.
From the result of measurements made, it is noted that the extract liquids obtained from the respective herbs are effective in improving theigniting ability, speed accelerating ability and running ability of each of the alcohol groups as compared with controls. These evaluations are not necessarily good when compared with gasoline. However, in the experiment wherein all kinds of extract liquids were mixed in equal amounts, their evaluations were invariably comparable to gasoline. Such result is considered to be due to the multiplied effect exerted by the ingredients of the respective extract liquids. It has been found also that the evaluation of the abilities of additives differ from each other depending on the largeness of the essential oil contents of the respective herbs.
Although detailed description is omitted, it should be noted that satisfactory results have been obtained from an alcohol fuel having a composition, by volume, of 60 - 80% of methanol, 18 - 8% of butanol, 19 - 11.7% of water and 3 - 0.3% of additive..
From the above-stated Examples and Tests of the additives of the present invention as compared with the controls, it has been confirmed that the additives of the present invention for alcohol fuels can be very easily extracted from the specific herbs, and they can be applied to water-containing alcohol fuels, and that engines intended for gasoline can be used for this invention, only slightly modifying the compression ratio, mixing ratio and ignition time. Although the distance covered per unit volume of additive-containing alcohol fuel is smaller than that of gasoline, it is remarkable to note that the fuel has a distance coverage which is 1.5 times that of absolute alcohol.
Also, no corrosion of metal parts-of engine, nor swelling of packings was noted. Further, it has been made clear that the additive-containing alcohol fuels produce no pollution of air. Thus, the present invention has been confirmed to be one which greatly contributes industrially.

Claims

1. An additive for alcohol fuel comprising an effective component consisting of an aqueous extract containing an essential oil ingredient and obtained from at least one kind of herb containing said essential oil ingredient.

2. An additive according to claim 1, in which:

said at least one kind of herb is selected from the botanical families of Umbelliferae, Compositae, Araceae, Santalaceae, Lauraceae, Rutaceae, Magnoliaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Labiatae, Zingiberaceae, Piperaceae, Liliaceae, Polygalaceae, Cyperaceae, Valerianaceae, Pinaceae and Gramineae.

3. A method of manufacturing an additive according to claim 1 or claim 2, comprising the steps of:

immersing chips of said at least one kind of herb in hot water to allow said ingredient to exude in the hot water to form an aqueous solution of extract of said essential oil ingredient containing said chips; and

separating said chips from the solution to provide an initial batch of an aqueous solution of said extract.

4. A method according to claim 3 , in which:

said initial batch of aqueous solution of extract containing an essential oil ingredient is not concentrated.

5. A method according to claim 3, in which said initial batch of aqueous solution of extract containing an essential oil ingredient is concentrated to 1/4 to 1/3 volume.

6. A method according to any of claims 3 to 5, in which:

said hot water is of a temperature ranging from 70 to 90°C and is of an amount corresponding to about 10 times the weight of said chips of the herb; and

said chips are immersed in this hot water for about 30 minutes.

7. An alcohol fuel composition comprising an additive according to claim 1 or claim 2 and ethanol and/or methanol.

8. A fuel composition according to claim 7 consisting essentially of 70 -81% by volume of ethanol, 18.7 - 29.0% by volume of water and 0.3 - 1.2% by volume of additive.

9. A fuel composition according to claim 7 consisting essentially of 70 - 81% by volume of methanol, 14.5 - 27.0% by volume of water and 0.5 - 3.0% by volume of additive.

10. A fuel composition according to claim 7 consisting essentially of 60 - 80% of methanol, 18 - 8% of butanol, 19 - 11.7% of water and 3 - 0.3% of additive.

1. A method of manufacturing an additive for alcohol fuel comprising an effective component consisting of an aqueous extract containing an essential oil ingredient, said method comprising the steps of: immersing chips of at least one kind of herb containing an essential oil ingredient in hot water to allow said ingredient to exude in the hot water to form an aqueous solution of extract of said essential oil ingredient containing said chips; and

2. A method according to claim 1 in which said at least one kind of herb is selected from the botanical families of Umbelliferae, Compositae, Araceae, Santalaceae, Lauraceae, Rutaceae, Magnoliaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Labiatae, Zingiberaceae, Piperaceae, Liliaceae, Polygalaceae, Cyperaceae, Valerianaceae, Pinaceae and Gramineae.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 in which:

4. A method according to claim 3, in which said initial batch of aqueous solution of extract containing an essential oil ingredient is concentrated to 1/4 to 1/3 volume.

5. A method according to any of claims 1 to 4, in which:

said chips are immersed in this hot water for about 30 minutes.

6. A method of manufacturing an alcohol fuel composition comprising manufacturing an additive by a method according to any preceding claim and mixing it with at least ethanol and/or methanol.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein said mixing step uses essentially 70 -81% by volume of ethanol, 18.7 - 29.0% by volume of water and 0.3 - 1.2% by volume of additive.

8. A method according to claim 6 wherein said mixing step uses essentially 70 - 81% by volume of methanol, 14.5 - 27.0% by volume of water and 0.5 - 3.0% by volume of additive.

9. A method according to claim 6 wherein said mixing step uses essentially 60 - 80% of methanol, 18 - 8% of butanol, 19 - 11.7% of water and 3 - 0.3% of additive.

10. Use of an additive prepared by a method according to any of claims 1 to 5 as an additive for alcohol fuel.