Fuel Properties of Butanol – Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil Blends as a Diesel Extender Option for Internal Combustion Engines

Abstract

European legislation and new engine technologies require better quality in fuels, and the diesel scandal pushes engine and fuel developers to investigate new solutions. The decrease of fossil energy sources and the new, stricter emission regulations necessitate the discovery of renewable sources. Biofuels are an obvious solution to replace fossil fuels in a more environmentally conscious way. This study presents a new approach with the analytical investigation of butanol, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and diesel oil blends.
In the presented phase of the research, our focus was on the most application- critical chemical properties of the fuels, to analyze if the three component blends are suitable for compression ignition engines. A wide-ranging chemical-analytical test plan was prepared with nearly 20 parameters measured of the chemical and physical parameters of blends, especially regarding flash point, cetane number, viscosity and cold filter plugging point (CFPP).
The findings prove that from an engine-critical characteristics point of view butanol – hydrogenated vegetable oil – diesel blends are a potential solution, as HVO and butanol counterbalance its critical parameters.