Evaluation of glycerol tert-butyl ethers as renewable fuel additive

Authors : Abdülvahap ÇAKMAK, Hakan ÖZCAN

Pages : 66-75

Doi:10.18245/ijaet.655168

View : 12 | Download : 5

Publication Date : 2020-06-08

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The aim of this research is the investigation of using glycerol tert-butyl ethers as a bio-renewable fuel additive to diesel-biodiesel blend in a diesel engine. In this context, an experimental study was carried out to synthesize glycerol tert-butyl ethers and investigate the effect of glycerol ethers on diesel engine performance and emissions. Glycerol tert-butyl ethers were synthesized by the etherification reaction of glycerol with tert-butyl alcohol insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TBA); in a high-pressure stainless steel batch reactor using Amberlyst-15 as solid acidic catalyst. Produced glycerol ethers were mixed by 2 vol.% with a biodiesel-diesel blend to investigate the glycerol ethers usage as a fuel additive in a diesel engine. Three test fuels were considered for the experiments: insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(i); diesel fuel, insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ii); B20 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(80 vol.% diesel + 20 vol.% corn oil biodiesel);; insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(iii); BD+GTBEs insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(80 vol.% diesel + 18 vol.% corn oil biodiesel + 2 vol.% glycerol tert-butyl ethers);. Some basic fuel properties of test fuels were determined prior to engine tests. Engine performance and emissions tests were performed on a single-cylinder research diesel engine at four brake power output. The results revealed that the addition of glycerol tert-butyl ethers in the fuel showed no significant effect on determined fuel properties and caused a decrease in engine performance and exhaust emissions except for CO emissions when compared to base diesel fuel. However, BD+GTBEs presented similar performance and emissions characteristics with B20, as a consequence, glycerol tert-butyl ethers have the possibility of being utilized as a bio-renewable fuel additive to diesel-biodiesel blends.
Keywords : Glycerol tert butyl ethers, Oxygenated fuels, biodiesel, diesel engine, performance, Emissions