Relative Reactivities of the Isomeric Butanols and Ethanol in an Ignition Quality Tester

Ignition quality tester (IQT) derived cetane numbers (DCNs) of binary blends of each individual alcohol (1-, 2-, iso-, and t-butanol and ethanol) with each second component (n-heptane and a real distillate fuel) have been measured to explore the autoignition behavior of these mixtures. This study pays particular attention to the effect of physical property variation within and among families of mixtures on their apparent reactivities. The relative reactivities of these blends are dominated by chemical kinetics, while blend-specific physical properties affect relative ignitability only slightly. The results firmly support DCN measurement as a means of characterizing mechanistic ignition chemistry behaviors among fuels and their blends. Surprisingly, t-butanol, which has been shown in other studies to be the least reactive pure C4 alcohol, shows the least suppression of reactivity when blended with heptane or diesel fuel for most mixture fractions. This result is related to the lack of easily abstractable H...

[1]  F. K. Mak.  Economics of producing unleaded gasoline blends with Oxinol and MTBE , 1986 .

[2]  G. Stephanopoulos,et al.  Selection and optimization of microbial hosts for biofuels production. , 2008, Metabolic engineering.

[3]  E. A. Warwicker,et al.  The gaseous oxidation of aliphatic alcohols. IV. The isomeric butyl alcohols , 1961, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[4]  H. Curran,et al.  Rate constants for hydrogen-abstraction by O˙H from n-butanol , 2011 .

[5]  Jeffrey T Moss,et al.  An experimental and kinetic modeling study of the oxidation of the four isomers of butanol. , 2008, The journal of physical chemistry. A.

[6]  G. Fasman,et al.  Physical and chemical data , 1976 .

[7]  Fokion N. Egolfopoulos,et al.  Flame propagation of butanol isomers/air mixtures , 2011 .

[8]  J. Liao,et al.  Non-fermentative pathways for synthesis of branched-chain higher alcohols as biofuels , 2008, Nature.

[9]  Zuohua Huang,et al.  Laminar burning velocities and flame instabilities of butanol isomers–air mixtures , 2010 .

[10]  Avinash Kumar Agarwal,et al.  Biofuels (alcohols and biodiesel) applications as fuels for internal combustion engines , 2007 .

[11]  R. Sivaramakrishnan,et al.  Rate constants for OH with selected large alkanes: shock-tube measurements and an improved group scheme. , 2009, The journal of physical chemistry. A.

[12]  Andrew C. Matheaus,et al.  Cetane numbers of branched and straight-chain fatty esters determined in an ignition quality tester , 2003 .

[13]  Thomas A. Litzinger,et al.  A jet fuel surrogate formulated by real fuel properties , 2010 .

[14]  Reyes García-Contreras,et al.  Stability, Lubricity, Viscosity, and Cold-Flow Properties of Alcohol−Diesel Blends , 2010 .

[15]  N. Marinov,et al.  A detailed chemical kinetic model for high temperature ethanol oxidation , 1999 .

[16]  John M. Simmie,et al.  Bio-butanol: Combustion properties and detailed chemical kinetic model , 2010 .

[17]  James S. Chickos,et al.  Enthalpies of Vaporization of Organic and Organometallic Compounds, 1880-2002 , 2003 .

[18]  André L. Boehman,et al.  Oxidation of 1-butanol and a mixture of n-heptane/1-butanol in a motored engine , 2010 .

[19]  Robert L. McCormick,et al.  Evaluation of formulation strategies to eliminate the biodiesel NOx effect , 2005 .

[20]  C. Westbrook,et al.  A comprehensive detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism for combustion of n-alkane hydrocarbons from n-octane to n-hexadecane , 2009 .

[21]  Joshua S. Heyne,et al.  Autoignition Studies of trans- and cis-Decalin in an Ignition Quality Tester (IQT) and the Development of a High Thermal Stability Unifuel/Single Battlefield Fuel , 2009 .

[22]  W. Green,et al.  Erratum to “Comprehensive reaction mechanism for n-butanol pyrolysis and combustion” [Combust. Flame 158 (2011) 16–41] , 2011 .

[23]  H. Hamid,et al.  Properties of MTBE and Other Oxygenates , 2004 .

[24]  S. Klippenstein,et al.  Rate constants for the thermal decomposition of ethanol and its bimolecular reactions with OH and D: reflected shock tube and theoretical studies. , 2010, The journal of physical chemistry. A.

[25]  Stephen B. Jaffe,et al.  Detailed Composition-Based Model for Predicting the Cetane Number of Diesel Fuels , 2006 .

[26]  Sergejus Lebedevas,et al.  Investigation of the Performance and Emission Characteristics of Biodiesel Fuel Containing Butanol under the Conditions of Diesel Engine Operation , 2010 .

[27]  Fei Qi,et al.  Pyrolysis of n-heptane: experimental and theoretical study. , 2011, The journal of physical chemistry. A.

[28]  Casimir Togbé,et al.  Kinetics of Oxidation of 2-Butanol and Isobutanol in a Jet-Stirred Reactor: Experimental Study and Modeling Investigation , 2010 .

[29]  L. Nielsen,et al.  Fermentative butanol production by clostridia , 2008, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[30]  Á. Bereczky,et al.  Performance Evaluation of Fuel Blends Containing Croton Oil, Butanol, and Diesel in a Compression Ignition Engine , 2010 .

[31]  Marcos Chaos,et al.  Low and intermediate temperature oxidation of ethanol and ethanol–PRF blends: An experimental and modeling study , 2009 .

[32]  P. Ghosh.  Predicting the Effect of Cetane Improvers on Diesel Fuels , 2008 .

[33]  Ole John Nielsen,et al.  Vapor Pressures of Alcohol−Gasoline Blends , 2010 .

[34]  Casimir Togbé,et al.  Experimental and Modeling Study of the Kinetics of Oxidation of Simple Biodiesel−Biobutanol Surrogates: Methyl Octanoate−Butanol Mixtures , 2010 .

[35]  R. Borup,et al.  Dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative fuel , 2006 .

[36]  Andy Yates,et al.  A Study of the Ignition-Delay Character of n-Heptane in the IQT™ Combustion Bomb Using CFD Modelling , 2007 .

[37]  Andrew C. Matheaus,et al.  Physical properties of oleochemical carbonates , 2005 .

[38]  Van P. Carey,et al.  The properties of gases & liquids: 4th Edition. Robert C. Reid, John M. Prausnitz, and Bruce E. Poling, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY, 1987, 741 pages, $49.50. , 1988 .