Biofuel additive production from glycerol and determination of its effect on some fuel properties

Abstract

In this study, the effects of glycerol ethers as a biobased additive on some important fuel properties of the diesel-biodiesel blend are investigated. For this, firstly, glycerol ethers are synthesized by the etherification reaction of glycerol with tert-butyl alcohol with the presence of Amberlyst-15 as an acidic catalyst. The process of synthesis is followed by analyzing product composition through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Lastly, synthesized glycerol tert-butyl ethers are mixed with a diesel-biodiesel blend, and the effects of glycerol ethers on the fuel properties are determined. The analysis results show that glycerol tert-butyl ether mixture consists of mono-and di-ethers of glycerol. Due to the dehydration reaction and hindrance effect, the tri-ether of glycerol is not generated. The outcomes of determination of fuel properties reveal that glycerol ethers can be blended with a biodiesel-diesel mixture without any significant change in the fuel properties by fully meeting the ASTM D7467 standard, indicating glycerol ethers could serve as a biobased additive to diesel-biodiesel blend.

Solketal Levulinate Ester as a Potential Fuel Additive for Palm Biodiesel

“…(Ilgen et al, 2017;Saengarun et al, 2017). Diesel fuel when blended with glycerol-based additives was reported to minimise particulate emissions, improve lubricity and engine performance (Çakmak and Özcan, 2020;Neamtu et al, 2019) Glycerol-based oxygenated compound that will be discussed in this article is classified as a solketal ester. Generally, solketal ester is made from solketal and organic acid or ester.…”

Synthesis of Solketal Ethers as Cold Flow Improver for Palm‐Based Biodiesel

“…[6] Nevertheless, the hydroxyl groups in glycerol must first be transformed into other derivatives to improve their miscibility and compatibility with fuel. In addition to glycerol ethers, [7] glycerol acetal/ketal such as solketal is another derivative that can be easily synthesized, [8][9][10][11][12] is commercially available, and exhibits potential as a fuel additive. Solketal has been shown to improve the octane number, [13] viscosity, [14] antiwear properties, [15] and cold flow properties [16][17][18] of gasoline or biodiesel while reducing gum formation and emission of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon.…”