Predicting Temperature Dependent Viscosity for Unaltered Waste Soybean Oil Blended with Petroleum Fuels

Abstract

Using vegetable oil based alternative fuels for diesel engines has grown in interest over recent years due to the rising cost of petroleum products and instability in the energy marketplace. One of the major hurdles to overcome in using vegetable oil as a diesel fuel is high viscosity. Here, we experimentally determine the viscosity of unaltered waste soybean oil (WSO) blended with petroleum fuels. Three blend viscosity models Arrhenius, Wright, and the ASTM D7152-05 Standard were evaluated for viscosity prediction accuracy over a temperature range of -10 to 40°C. Results indicated that the Arrhenius method using volume fractions was the most accurate predictor of viscosity for binary blends made of WSO and diesel (2.31% absolute average deviation) as well as multicomponent blends made from WSO, diesel, kerosene, and gasoline (8.72% absolute average deviation). An intermolecular interaction correction factor was empirically determined for each model in an effort to improve prediction accuracy for the multi-component blends. Using the correction constants improved the absolute average deviation for the Arrhenius method to 6.85%, 5.87% for the Wright method based on mass fractions, and 9.67% for the ASTM method based on mass fractions. The use of this correlation constant for the Arrhenius method was only helpful for blends containing more that 30% WSO, indicating that molecular interaction behavior only deviates significantly from ideality at these higher WSO fractions.

The Effect of Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters Concentration on the Kinematic Viscosity of Biodiesel Fuel

“…Gutti et al measured kinematic viscosity for quality test of the biodiesel fuels produced from Balanite aegyptiaca seed oil by catalyzed (1.5 % KOH) transesterification with methanol at 333 K. The kinematic viscosity was measured using the ASTM D445 method at temperature of 313.15 K. Maksimuka measured the viscosity of FAEEs of rapeseed oil in the temperature range from (293 to 353) K using commercial capillary viscometer with uncertainty of 0.01 mm 2 ·s –1 . The viscosity of vegetable oils and diesel oil blends have been measured in several publications (see, for example refs and ).…”

“…The revised Yuan’s model is the original Yuan’s model in which the VTF parameters were refitted to the new experimental viscosity data. , The model proposed by Freitas et al was compared with the models by Ceriani et al, Krisnangkura et al, and Yuan et al The average deviations between the same experimental viscosity data and the predicted values from models ,,, are 4.65 %, 5.34 %, 8.07 %, and 7.25 %, respectively. Wagner et al showed that the Arrhenius method using volume fractions most accurately (within 2.31%) predicts the viscosity of binary blends of WSO.…”

Evaluation of Predictive Models for the Viscosity of Biodiesel

“…It can be blended with diesel fuel to be used in conventional engines and is able to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 78% . Although most commercially available biodiesel is still between 5 and 20% biodiesel blended with petroleum diesel because of the higher prices of feedstocks for biodiesel production, the tendency of increasing production is expected to continue in the coming decades with the development and growth of nonfood feedstocks …”

How Green Is your Fuel? Creation and Comparison of Automotive Biofuels

“…However, their use requires a heated fuel-supply system to lower the viscosity to allow proper flow through the fuel system, fuel injector-spray patterns, and atomization of the fuel. An alternate approach to solving the viscosity issue is to blend vegetable oil with petroleum fuels . There have been a number of reports and evidence indicating good engine power and acceptable emissions with diesel engines operating on SVO blended with petroleum diesel − .…”