BS4 Swift Put Through 1,000 km on E100 in IIT Delhi-ISMA Study

A BS4 Maruti Suzuki Swift equipped with an imported flex-fuel conversion kit completed a 1,000 km road trial on pure ethanol (E100) as part of a study conducted by IIT Delhi for the Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA).

The final test report, seen by Autocar Professional, also included a BS6 Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire that completed a 5,000 km run on pure ethanol (E100) using the imported conversion kit. The study was undertaken to evaluate whether existing petrol vehicles can operate on higher ethanol blends through retrofit flex-fuel technology.

Titled Studies on Use of Higher Ethanol Fractions in Commercial Gasoline Vehicles Using Special Conversion Kits, the project was carried out by IIT Delhi under the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT). Researchers tested the vehicles across multiple ethanol blends ranging from E12 to E100 while monitoring drivability, fuel consumption, emissions and engine operating conditions.

According to the report, the BS4 Swift covered 10,500 km across various ethanol blends, including E15, E25, E30, E35, E40, E50 and E100. The BS6 Swift Dzire accumulated 14,250 km during the trials, including the 5,000 km run on pure ethanol. Combined, the two vehicles covered nearly 25,000 km as part of the test programme.

The report states that both vehicles continued to operate without any reported operational issues during the field trials. Researchers evaluated acceleration, deceleration, starting behaviour, real-time performance, emissions and engine health parameters and found no abnormal behaviour during the test programme.

The conversion kits used in the study were supplied by Finland-based eFlexFuel and were integrated into the vehicles to enable operation on varying ethanol concentrations. The system uses an ethanol sensor to determine ethanol content and adjusts fuel injection accordingly, allowing the vehicle to adapt to different ethanol blends without requiring separate ECU recalibration for each fuel mix.

The study comes amid growing interest in flex-fuel technologies as India pushes ahead with its ethanol blending programme. While E20 fuel is already being rolled out across the country, proponents of flex-fuel conversion kits argue that retrofit solutions could provide a pathway for existing petrol vehicles to utilise higher ethanol blends without waiting for an entirely new vehicle parc to emerge.

Autocar Professional earlier reported that Ethanol Conversion Kits should cost no more than Rs 15,000, according to Deepak Ballani, Director General of ISMA.

The report also notes that the trials included testing on commercial petrol as well as blends containing 12%, 15%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 50% and 100% ethanol. Researchers monitored fuel consumption, hydrocarbon emissions, carbon monoxide emissions, exhaust gas temperatures and other engine operating parameters during the programme.

Industry stakeholders say the findings could help inform future discussions around testing, certification and localisation of flex-fuel conversion kits in India. Any commercial deployment, however, would require validation and approval through the relevant regulatory and testing agencies before large-scale adoption.