Abstract
Biodiesel is a renewable and reduced-emission alternative fuel produced mainly from the alcoholysis of vegetable oils and/or animal fats. It is mainly used in blends with diesel fuel to reduce emissions, enhance lubrication and lower sulfur content. Being able to accurately determine the physicochemical properties of blended fuel is important for optimal injection, combustion, and lubricating performance in diesel engines. Also, fuel properties vary as the ratio of biodiesel-diesel changes, affecting the final fuel quality. In this study, a wide range and narrow intervals of (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 35, 50, 75 and 100% by volume) off-quality canola-based biodiesel blends were prepared at ambient conditions and used to study the blended fuel properties (density, kinematic viscosity, flash point, cloud point and pour point). This is particularly important for examining the effect of a biodiesel content of more than 20%—the industry maximum blend content—on cold flow properties, fuel stability, energy value, and emissions. It was found that the kinematic viscosity and density increased linearly as the concentration of the biodiesel in the blend increases. The pour point and cloud point temperature showed a small increase up to 35% blending ratio and a rapid increase in temperature for biodiesel concentrations higher than 35%. Also, the flash point remained almost constant at an average value of 73 °C for blends less than 20%, above which the values for the flash point increased exponentially with biodiesel concentration. Furthermore, predictive correlations were developed for all tested fuel properties from regressing corresponding experimental data. All models exhibited excellent agreement with experimental data with an average absolute deviation of less than 5%.
Highlights
Biodiesel is a long chain fatty acid ester mainly produced from reacting vegetable oils and/or animal fats with alcohol in the presence of a strong base catalyst (NaOH or KOH)
Evaluating the biodiesel-diesel blended fuel properties is of utmost importance for choosing a suitable blending ratio in order to meet the required blended fuel standard [2]
This work proposes an alternative method for estimating the bulk modulus of biodiesel-diesel fuel blends by means of experimental investigation commonly used for determining fuel properties
Summary
Biodiesel is a long chain fatty acid ester mainly produced from reacting vegetable oils and/or animal fats with alcohol (methanol or ethanol) in the presence of a strong base catalyst (NaOH or KOH). The literature shows that biodiesel-diesel blend concentrations of 10% by volume (B10) have no significant effect on the density and viscosity of the blended fuel at temperatures of 20 ◦C to 80 ◦C [3]. It was observed that the viscosity of the biodiesel-diesel blend increases as the amount of methyl ester increases in the fuel mixture [7] Another important parameter that needs to be determined for the blend is the cetane number. The cetane number, a commonly used parameter as an indication of the quality of ignition, is measured using a specific test engine (ASTM D 613) or a constant volume combustion apparatus (ASTM D6890) [8,9]. Multi-variable models were established using non-linear regression for ignition properties
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