Studies on the Mint Oil and its Application to Spark Ignition Engine (Part 1)

Properties of Mint Oils and Some Engine Performance

Abstract

It was found that the physical and chemical properties of refined peppermint and spearmint oil, produced in cold regions such as Hokkaido-northern part of Japan, were very simular to those of refined eucaliptus oil. Its applications to spark ignition engine as fuel has been conducted. In this paper the engine was operated on the peppermint and spearmint oil blended fuels with regular grade gasoline of lead free. The results are as follows: 1) Excess air ratio can be shifted towards lean mixture part unless the carburetor setting is for neat gasoline use. As a result, brake horsepower and brake thermal efficiency were slighty increased in case of using the mint oil blended fuels compared to neat gasoline. 2) When the engine was operated under the same excess air ratio, the brake horsepower and brake thermal efficiency showed little difference between neat peppermint oil and neat regular gasoline.