Biofuel Additive Production from Glycerol and Determination of Its Effect on Some Fuel Properties

Abstract

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 Annberlyst-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, synthesized 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.