Preparation And Evaluation Of Micro-emulsified Biodiesel Fuel

Increasing global energy shortage and the environemtnal problems have attractedmore and more attentions in renewable and environmental friendly biofuels recently.The micro-emulsified biodiesel fuel is such an attractive solution to the problems ofenergy and environment, because it is from renewable resource, it has stableproperties, long shelf life, more complete burning, and excellent effect in decreasingthe exhaust. And there is less erosion and abrasion in the diesel engine fueled with it.In this research the physical and chemical properties of the biodiesel prepared fromwaste oil were analyzed. The results showthat the biodiesel was mainly made up of18-c and 16-c fatty acid methester, the performance conformed to the standard. It isan excellent substitute fuel for diesel oil. It can also be used as the raw material forthe micro-emulsion of biodiesel oil.Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB),ammonium oleate were selected afterthe single factor experiment and the uniform design statistical experiment methods asthe surface activation agent and butylacohol as the cosurfactant to prepare themicro-emulsion. The results showed that the optimal proportion of emulsifier isCTAB 8.5%, ammonium oleate 46.3%, and butylacohol 45.2%.The micro-emulsion biodiesel oil is a Newtonian fluid at room temperature. The typeand content of emulsifier have the remarkable influence on the viscosity of themicro-emulsion oil. High viscosity emulsifier causes high viscosity emulsion. Theviscosity of microemulsion increases with the content of emulsifier and water also.The higher the water content, the larger the rate of viscosity increases.Diesel engine fueled with the micro-emulsion biodiesel oil can effectively cut downthe amount of HC,CO,and NO_x in the exhaust and reduce the wastage of the fuel.The maximum reduction of HC is 41.2%, CO 36.1%, and NO_x 14.1%. When the content of water is about 10%, the effect of energy saving and the pollutant reductionare the best. The less the content of emulsifier is, the better the economics of the fuel.Exploiting the micro-emulsion biodiesel oil is very significant to protect theecological environment and control the air pollution. Making micro-emulsionbiodiesel is also very important to the sustainable development and promoting ournational energy diversity and security.