Patent ID: 8607743
Filing Date: 2013-12-17
Classification: F02D,F02M,Y02T

Abstract:
1. An internal combustion engine comprising: a fuel reforming catalyst including a heating unit, the fuel reforming catalyst generating combustible gas from reforming fuel by using heat of the heating unit; a reforming fuel supplying unit that supplies blended fuel of gasoline and alcohol to the fuel reforming catalyst as the reforming fuel; a temperature acquisition unit that acquires a temperature of the fuel reforming catalyst; a mixture ratio detecting unit that detects a mixture ratio of the gasoline and the alcohol contained in the reforming fuel; a lower limit temperature calculating unit to variably set a lower limit temperature necessary to activate the fuel reforming catalyst based on the mixture ratio detected by the mixture ratio detecting unit; a reforming fuel suspending unit to suspend supply of the reforming fuel when the temperature acquired by the temperature acquisition unit is lower than the lower limit temperature; and a memory circuit which stores a characteristic data to set the lower limit temperature to be higher as the mixture ratio of the gasoline in the reforming fuel increases, wherein the lower limit temperature calculating unit is configured to set the lower limit temperature to be higher as the mixture ratio of the gasoline in the reforming fuel increases based on the characteristic data stored in the memory circuit.