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

Abdülvahap Çakmak, Hakan Özcan
2020 SN Applied Sciences  
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,
more » ... sized 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.
doi:10.1007/s42452-020-03308-7 fatcat:4pjm7pewmvcylaofksa3ow7ob4