Fuel reform apparatus

A fuel reform apparatus, comprising:

• an internal combustion engine including an injector configured to inject fuel supplied from a fuel tank into a combustion chamber and configured so that compression-ignition combustion is carried out in the combustion chamber;
• a reform unit interposed in a fuel supply path from the fuel tank to the injector and including a reformer configured to reform fuel stored in the fuel tank by oxidation reaction;
• an ignition timing detector configured to detect an ignition timing of fuel in the combustion chamber;
• and
• a controller including a CPU and a memory connected to the CPU, wherein the controller is configured to function as:
• a reform control unit configured to control operation of the reform unit;
• a fuel supply determination unit configured to determine whether fuel has been supplied into the fuel tank;
• and
• a reform determination unit configured to determine whether a reforming is needed based on the ignition timing detected by the ignition timing detector when it is determined by the fuel supply determination unit that fuel has been supplied into the fuel tank, wherein
• the reform control unit controls operation of the reform unit so as to reform fuel stored in the fuel tank by the reformer to supply to the injector when it is determined by the reform determination unit that the reforming is needed;
• while controls operation of the reform unit so as to supply fuel stored in the fuel tank to the injector without reforming by the reformer when it is determined by the reform determination unit that the reforming is not needed.