Experimental research on the liquid thermal conductivity of mixtures of methyl caprate and ethyl caprate with n-undecane and n-tridecane

Abstract

Globally, biofuel is considered as the largest renewable energy source to substitute the petrochemical fuel and it is thus received a great amount of attention from both developed countries and developing countries. Among all the biofuels, biodiesel is strongly recommended as a promising alternative fuel for traditional internal combustion engines. Thermal conductivity is an essential transport property of fuel, and is vital in the flow and heat transfer process. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the research associated with fuel’s thermal conductivity. In this work, four binary fuel mixtures containing biodiesel components methyl caprate and ethyl caprate with n-undecane and n-tridecane were prepared respectively, and the liquid thermal conductivity of which were measured by the transient hot wire method system. The measurement was conducted at the temperature from 292 K to 362 K at atmospheric pressure. The experimental data reported here have an uncertainty of less than 2%. In addition, a correlation about the relationship between the liquid thermal conductivity with temperature and the esters’ concentration in different fuel blends has been correlated.