Leader in Brazil and in the world, Magneti Marelli, pioneer in this field, launches the SFS technology that allows cars to use ethanol alcohol, gasoline or any blend of the two fuels.
Thanks to the four-year work of a team of Magneti Marelli Brazilian engineers and an investment of 3 million of US$, the bi-fuel technology is a reality since March 2003.
Thousands of Brazilians, together with the environment, benefit from its advantages and, due to this positive results, it is rapidly spreading all over the world.
Software Flexfuel Sensor
After SFS creation, (Software Flexfuel Sensor), the fuel type now depends solely on the driver choice.
SFS, an efficient and effective software, is contained inside the engine control unit (ECU).
SFS identifies and quantifies the combination of alcohol and gasoline in the tank, using information received from sensors installed throughout the fuel injection system, among them the Lambda sensor, engines temperatures, speed, rotation and knock sensors.
An innovative idea
The software determines the exact amount of fuel that needs to be injected in the engine and also the optimal spark plug timing to ignite the mixture.
The first version of a flexible system appeared in the United States in 1991, but it required the inclusion of a physical sensor to analyze the fuel, an unnecessary item in the case of SFS, which raised the price of the vehicle.
“Natural advantages”
Thanks to the fact that SFS works with any proportion of the blend, it guarantees the owner of the car the possibility to choose the type of fuel to use, in accordance with its availability and its price.
Flexfuel components
Important parts of the flexfuel system are intake manifolds and injectors as well. Their characteristics has been optimized for the ethanol handling.
Flexfuel system injectors are PICO injectors which have a simplified design and process, a lower fuel permeability and, at the same time, they are highly resistant to corrosion, compared to other injectors in production.
The last part that complete the Flexfuel system is the Ethanol Cold Start System, that allows to start the engine in any weather.
The advantage of this Magneti Marelli solution consists in removing the auxiliary gasoline tank used only for the start and replacing it with a device that warm up in advance the fuel (ECS actuator). In this way it is possible to reduce costs, system complexity and vehicle cold start