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

Published

July 9, 2012

Author(s)

George G. Anitescu, Thomas J. Bruno

Abstract

The volatility of biodiesel fuel samples 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., 400 oC) of the SCTE process partially decomposed the polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) to lower molecular FAMEs ranged approximately from C6 to C15 along with C10-C17 n-alkanes and alkenes. These lighter fuel components shifted the first portion of the distillation curves toward that of No 2 diesel fuel. This means that biodiesel fuels produced by SCTE at 400 oC exhibit higher overall volatility when compared to commercial biodiesel samples produced by conventional catalytic TE. Other important fuel properties such as ignition delay via cetane numbers could also be improved. 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

Journal of Supercritical Fluids

Volume

26

Issue

8

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/ef300615r

Local Download

Keywords

biodiesel fuel, supercritical transesterification, advanced distillation curve method, volatility, cetane number, advanced distillation curve method, biodiesel fuel, cetane number, supercritical transesterification, volatility

Citation

Anitescu, G. and Bruno, T. (2012), Biodiesel Fuels from Supercritical Fluid Processing: Quality Evaluation with the Advanced Distillation Curve Method and Cetane Numbers, Journal of Supercritical Fluids, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/ef300615r, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=910864 (Accessed September 21, 2024)