Blends of Green Diesel (Synthetized from Palm Oil) and Petroleum Diesel: a Study on the Density and Viscosity

Abstract

Green diesel, also known as renewable diesel, is a biofuel obtained from biomass with similar physical properties than petroleum diesel. Renewable diesel is mainly composed by hydrocarbons free of oxygen, which can be blended at high concentrations with petroleum diesel due to their chemical affinity. Density and viscosity are two important physical properties of fuels that play an important role in the processes of atomization and injection in engines. Also, the knowledge of these properties is important for the correct design, operation, and optimization of chemical processes. Despite their importance, there is low information about experimental data and developed models related to the renewable diesel–petroleum diesel blend. To overcome the above limitation, this paper is focused on the study of four blends of renewable diesel and petroleum diesel in order to study the variation of density and kinematic viscosity with respect to the concentration and temperature. In addition, empirical correlations to predict the density and kinematic viscosity as function of temperature and concentration were developed. Density and viscosity of renewable diesel, petroleum diesel, and their blends were simultaneously measured with a densitometer–viscometer device with an uncertainty in density and viscosity of 0.1 kg/m3 and 1 × 10−8 m2/s. The parameters of the developed correlations were adjusted by the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization method. There was a good agreement between the calculated and experimental data because an average absolute deviation (AAD) of 0.07 and 1.66% were obtained for the predictions of density and kinematic viscosity respectively.