JPH0765492B2 - Lubricator for alcohol engine - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a lubricating device for an alcohol engine, which uses, as a fuel, alcohol having a high concentration of 80 to 100% as a substitute for gasoline.

(Prior Art) In recent years, alcohol engines that use alcohol as fuel have been developed. The alcohol engine is methanol (CH
₃ OH, boiling point 64.51 ° C), etal (CH ₃ CH ₂ OH, boiling point 78.32
℃) TBA (tergery butyl alcohol, boiling point 82.8
℃), MTBE (methyl tetra butyl ether, boiling point
The engine uses alcohol such as 55.3 ° C) as fuel, but has the following problems.

That is, alcohol containing water enters into the oil pan together with blow-by, but the above-mentioned various alcohols do not dissolve in the engine oil and the water-in-oil type emulsion Liquid) and the emulsion extracts various additives in the engine oil, or causes factors such as wear and corrosion in the engine internal, resulting in a problem that the engine life is shortened.

In order to solve such a problem, a lubricating oil deterioration preventing device for an alcohol engine has been already invented, for example, as described in JP-A-59-34411.

This device is equipped with a recovery ring in the blow-by section at the lower end of the cylinder liner, and the engine oil recovered by this recovery ring is guided to the separator outside the cylinder block via the conduit inside the cylinder block, while the heat from the exhaust pipe is transferred to the heat pump. Is a device configured to conduct the separation of alcohol by heating the engine oil of the above-mentioned separator by using the exhaust heat.

However, this conventional device has the following problems.

That is, since alcohol is mixed with blow-by gas, the amount of alcohol directly entering the oil pan is large as compared with the amount recovered from the recovery ring described above, and not only the recovery rate is poor, but also an emulsion, which is described above. There was a problem that the pipe was clogged and the structure was complicated.

In addition, since the heat from the exhaust pipe is guided to the separator via the heat pump, it is difficult to attach the exhaust heat pipe and the like, and the heating effect is poor.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention provides a unique polymer film in the engine oil storage portion to selectively absorb water and alcohol as emulsion products in the engine oil, thereby causing engine abrasion and corrosion due to the emulsion. It is an object of the present invention to provide a lubrication device for an alcohol engine that can reliably prevent the above.

(Structure of the Invention) The present invention relates to an engine oil storage part for storing engine oil, and water disposed in the engine oil storage part.
A lubrication device for an alcohol engine, comprising a polymer film that allows alcohol to pass therethrough and does not allow engine oil to pass therethrough.

(Effect of the Invention) According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned engine oil reservoir,
For example, because a polymer membrane such as an ultrafiltration membrane or a reverse osmosis membrane that allows water and alcohol to permeate but does not allow engine oil to permeate is provided, only water and alcohol from engine oil or emulsion should be used as the polymer Because it can permeate through the membrane and remove the emulsion product,
There is an effect that it is possible to surely prevent engine wear and corrosion due to the emulsion.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

The drawing shows a lubrication device for an alcohol engine. In FIG. 1, a piston 3 is arranged in a cylinder 2 of a cylinder block 1, and a piston 4 of the piston 3 and a crankshaft 5 are connected by a connecting rod 6. The reciprocating motion of the piston 3 due to the repetition of four strokes is transmitted to the crankshaft 5 via the connecting rod 6 so that the crankshaft 5 rotates together with the balance weight 7.

A cylinder head (not shown) is attached to the upper portion of the cylinder block 1 described above, while an oil pan 9 is attached to the lower portion of the cylinder block 1 via a gasket 8.

The oil pan 9 is an oil container for storing engine oil 10 as lubricating oil. An external oil pan 12 communicating with the inside of the oil pan 9 via a communication passage 11 is arranged near the outside of the oil pan 9 described above. ing.

In the lower part of this external oil pan 12, the oil pan 12
A special polymer film 15 that divides the inside into an upper chamber 13 and a lower chamber 14 is stretched horizontally, in other words, so as to be orthogonal to the flow direction of the engine oil 10.

An oil suction pipe 16 whose lower end opening is directly above the polymer film 15 is connected to an oil pump (not shown), while a drain plug 17 is provided at the bottom of the lower chamber 14 and a lower chamber is also provided. Water and alcohol sensors 18 are attached to the side walls.

Here, as the polymer membrane 15 described above, an ultrafiltration membrane (ultr) that is permeable to water and alcohol and impermeable to engine oil is used.
a filtration film) or reverse osmosis membrane.

The ultrafiltration membrane described above is a semi-permeable membrane that is permeable to low molecular weight substances, water and alcohol, but not to polymeric substances such as engine oil, and is made of materials such as fluoropolymers, polysulfones, cellulosics, vinyl chlorides, and polycarbonates. To be done.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned reverse osmosis membrane is a semipermeable membrane having a selective permeability that allows only water, alcohol, some low-molecular weight compounds, and ions to pass therethrough, and is formed of a material such as polyamide, cellulose acetate, or polybenzimidazole. .

By the way, the molecular size of engine oil 10 is 500Å ~ 10
μ, the size of the permeation molecule of the ultrafiltration membrane is 10Å to several μ, and the size of the permeation molecule of the reverse osmosis membrane is about 1Å to 10Å,
When an ultrafiltration membrane is used as the polymer membrane 15 described above, a polymer membrane having a predetermined range that does not allow the engine oil 10 to permeate is used.

The illustrated embodiment is configured as described above, and the operation will be described below.

Now, when the above-mentioned alcohol engine is driven, alcohol such as high-concentration methanol used as fuel enters into the oil pan 9 together with blow-by and the like, and an emulsion is generated.

This emulsion flows into the external oil pan 12 through the communication passage 11 and then reaches the polymer film 15. Since the size of water and alcohol molecules in this emulsion and engine oil 10 is several angstroms, they pass through the polymer film 15 and are separated from the engine oil 10 which does not pass through the polymer film 15. .

The water and alcohol that have permeated the above-mentioned polymer membrane 15 are in the lower chamber.
Alcohol in the upper chamber 13, while stored in 14
Only the engine oil 10 that does not contain water or emulsion is sucked from the oil suction pipe 16 and supplied to the engine internals as lubricating oil, which is effective in preventing engine wear and corrosion, and structurally. Also, there is an effect that it is simpler than that of the conventional example.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment, in which the porous body 19 for collecting the emulsion is stretched over the upper part of the external oil pan 12 and the polymer film 15 is attached to the upper part. It is arranged in a V shape, and after the emulsion is decomposed into small pieces by the porous body 19, the polymer film 15 is configured to efficiently and selectively absorb water and alcohol from the emulsion.

Even with this configuration, the other points have substantially the same actions and effects as those of the previous embodiment. Therefore, in FIG. 2, the same parts as in FIG. The description is omitted.

FIG. 3 shows still another embodiment, in which an L-shaped drain pipe 20 for draining water and alcohol is provided at a substantially central portion of the external oil pan 12, and the drain pipe 20 has an upper end opening portion having the above-mentioned height. The molecular film 15 is stretched, a water / alcohol sensor 18 is provided on the downstream side of the polymer film 15, and a solenoid valve 21 is provided on a drain pipe 20 outside the external oil pan 12.

In addition, the shielding guide plate 2 having an inverted conical shape is formed so that the engine oil 10 is collectively flowed to the above-mentioned site where the polymer film 15 is disposed.
2,23 are arranged to collect water in the emulsion and alcohol intensively, and water which has permeated through the polymer film 15 described above,
Alcohol is detected by water and the alcohol sensor 18, and based on this detection signal, the solenoid valve 21 is operated to open,
It is configured to remove water and alcohol to the outside of the external oil pan 12.

Even with this configuration, the same actions and effects as those of the previous embodiment are achieved except for the points described above. Therefore, in FIG. 3, the same parts as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by the same reference numerals. And detailed description thereof is omitted.

In the correspondence between the configuration of the present invention and the above-described embodiment, the engine oil storage portion of the present invention corresponds to the external oil pan 12 of the embodiment, but the present invention is limited only to the configuration of the above-described embodiment. Not something.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a lubricating device for an alcohol engine, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the lubricating device, and FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows the Example of. 10 …… Engine oil, 12 …… External oil pan 15 …… Polymer membrane

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lubrication device for an alcohol engine, comprising: an engine oil storage portion for storing engine oil; and a polymer membrane disposed in the engine oil storage portion, the polymer membrane permeable to water and alcohol and impermeable to engine oil. .