Abstract
Biodiesel is regarded to be a renewable, CO2 neutral and thus sustainable biological alternative diesel fuel. With attention to the reduction of petroleum import, PM 2.5 aerosol particles and the greenhouse effect gas CO2, biodiesel has drawn great research interests and efforts in the past decade in China. Generally, biodiesel refers to fatty acid methyl ether (FAME) which has a proved effect in reducing diesel emission, particularly PM. However, FAME has a limited cetane number and oxygen content, to study the effects of elevated cetane number and oxygen content on fuel properties, engine combustion and emissions, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether is used to produce a series of new models of biodiesels by transesterification method. The feedstocks are rapeseed oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, palm oil and cottonseed oil. Ether group alcohols used in this study include ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monopropyl ether, propylene glycol monomethyl ether, diethylene glycol monomethyl ether, triethylene glycol monomethyl ether. The molecular structure was proved by FT-IR and NMR analyses. Fuel properties were measured based on the corresponding standards. The developed new model biodiesels have cetane number (CN) over 70 and oxygen content over 17% by mass, which are higher than FAME (50 CN and 11% oxygen). They have the same level of lower heating value as FAME, but have a higher density, which helps to compensate the decrease of engine power. Meanwhile, the engine tests were carried out to investigate the effects of ether ester group on engine combustion and emissions. The test results show that FAME reduced smoke 30% to 50%, while the new model biodiesel fuels reduced engine smoke as high as 80% and have the potential to decrease engine HC, CO and NOx emissions 50% or more.
Highlights
Diesel engines are robust, powerful and efficient enough, they are widely used in trucks, off-road vehicles, farming machineries, electricity generation plants and so on
This review is to summarize our researches about the new model biodiesels
It can be seen that the cetane number and oxygen content of fatty acid methyl ether (FAME) are around 50 and 11%, which are less affected by oil stocks
Summary
Powerful and efficient enough, they are widely used in trucks, off-road vehicles, farming machineries, electricity generation plants and so on. It has a similar cetane number as compared to petrodiesel, so it can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel in any proportions It is an oxygenated fuel without sulfur content, which can promote engine combustion and reduce emissions of HC, CO and PM, which helps to reduce the environmental pollution. It has better lubricity, and unsaturated esters possess a slight advantage. The ether group introduced into biodiesel molecule promotes its octane number and oxygen content to 70 and 17% approximately, which proves to have a better performance than conventional biodiesel in reducing engine emissions, especially smoke can be reduced 80% approximately. The synthesized biodiesel itself, its fuel properties, engine test equipment and engine performance were reviewed respectively, which proves our research activity is interesting and progressive
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