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Biodiesel Fuels from Supercritical Fluid Processing: Quality Evaluation with the Advanced Distillation Curve Method and Cetane Numbers

Published

Author(s)

Thomas J. Bruno, George G. Anitescu, Lawrence L. Tavlarides

Abstract

To develop efficient reactor and plant designs to optimize the process of biofuel production, thermophysical and chemical properties of various reactive mixtures as well as those of biofuel are required over wide range of conditions. In this study, the volatility of samples of biodiesel fuels produced by supercritical (SC) transesterification (TE) of triglyceride feedstocks of chicken fat and soybean oil was determined by the advanced distillation curve method. Particularly high temperatures (e.g., approximately 400 °C) of the SCTE process decomposed the polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) to lower molecular FAMEs ranged from C6 to C15 along with n-alkanes and alkenes. These lighter fuel components shifted the first portion of the distillation curves of the SC biodiesel fuels toward that of the diesel fuel #2. In comparison with biodiesel fuel conventionally produced by catalytic TE, this shift on fuel volatility accounted by more than 100 °C. This means that biodiesel fuels produced by SCTE at approximately 400 °C exhibit significantly higher volatility when compared to commercial biodiesel samples produced by conventional catalytic TE. This information will permit efficient fuel system and combustion chamber designs to optimize fuel utilization in diesel engines, decrease of fuel consumption and emission mitigation.
Citation
ACS Symposium Series
Volume
26
Issue
8

Keywords

biodiesel fuel, distillation curve, supercritical fluid reactions

Citation

Bruno, T. , Anitescu, G. and Tavlarides, L. (2012), Biodiesel Fuels from Supercritical Fluid Processing: Quality Evaluation with the Advanced Distillation Curve Method and Cetane Numbers, ACS Symposium Series, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/ef300615r (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created July 9, 2012, Updated November 10, 2018