Design of green diesel from biofuels using computer aided technique

This paper presents a systematic computer aided technique to design a sustainable (safe, environmentally friendly and economical) tailor-made “green diesel” blend that satisfies a set of desirable target properties. In this work, the software, Integrated Computer Aided System (ICAS) was used to predict the green diesel properties. The blending model is formulated to identify a set of feasible mixture blends that satisfy the desirable target properties such as density and viscosity. The blend design problem is formulated as an NLP problem and solved through GAMS. Application of the systematic technique yields several promising green diesel blends. Four final candidate blends were selected based on three key criterion, i.e. cost, sulfur content and carbon dioxide emissions. The results show that the best diesel contains 82.4% diesel, 16.6% butanol and 1% butyl levulinate. This diesel blend contributes to the reduction of CO2 emission and sulfur content by up to 15% and 17%, respectively.

[1]  G Nagarajan,et al.  Relating the cetane number of biodiesel fuels to their fatty acid composition: A critical study , 2009 .

[2]  M. Canakci,et al.  CHARACTERIZATION OF THE KEY FUEL PROPERTIES OF METHYL ESTER–DIESEL FUEL BLENDS , 2009 .

[3]  Rafiqul Gani,et al.  Chemical product design : toward a perspective through case studies , 2007 .

[4]  M. Riazi,et al.  Estimation of Sulfur Content of Petroleum Products and Crude Oils , 1999 .

[5]  Choo Yuen May,et al.  Key fuel properties of palm oil alkyl esters , 2005 .

[6]  J. Agudelo,et al.  Basic properties of palm oil biodiesel–diesel blends , 2008 .

[7]  Prommes Kwanchareon,et al.  Solubility of a diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blend, its fuel properties, and its emission characteristics from diesel engine , 2007 .

[8]  Vasiliki Kazantzi,et al.  On the prediction of properties for diesel / biodiesel mixtures featuring new environmental considerations , 2010 .

[9]  Barat Ghobadian,et al.  Production of Bioethanol and Sunflower Methyl Ester and Investigation of Fuel Blend Properties , 2008 .

[10]  T. W. Ryan,et al.  The effects of vegetable oil properties on injection and combustion in two different diesel engines , 1984 .

[11]  Bundit Fungtammasan,et al.  Biodiesel as an Additive for Diesohol , 2009 .

[12]  Rafiqul Gani,et al.  Computer-Aided Methods and Tools for Chemical Product Design , 2004 .

[13]  Ashok Pandey,et al.  Handbook of Plant Based Biofuels , 2007 .

[14]  Rafiqul Gani,et al.  An integrated computer aided system for integrated design of chemical processes , 1997 .

[15]  A. Luengnaruemitchai,et al.  Utilization of palm oil alkyl esters as an additive in ethanol–diesel and butanol–diesel blends , 2009 .

[16]  Murat Hosoz,et al.  Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine using isobutanol–diesel fuel blends , 2009 .

[17]  E. A. Ajav,et al.  A STUDY OF SOME FUEL PROPERTIES OF LOCAL ETHANOL BLENDED WITH DIESEL FUEL , 2002 .

[18]  M. P. Dorado,et al.  Physical and chemical properties of ethanol–diesel fuel blends , 2011 .