Energy & Fuels, Vol.25, No.6, 2518-2525, 2011
Comparison of Diesel Fuel Oxygenate Additives to the Composition-Explicit Distillation Curve Method. Part 3: t-Butyl Glycerols
In this paper (the third in a series of papers on the properties of mixtures of diesel fuel with oxygenating additives), we present the application of the technique to mixtures of diesel fuel with the potential fuel additive t-butyl glycerol, which is a blend of mono-, di-, and triglycerol t-butyl ethers (GTBEs). These compounds are derived from glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel fuel production. Four t-butyl glycerol blends were examined: blends 1 and 2 are mostly composed of di-GTBE; blend 3 is mostly composed of tri-GTBE; and blend 4 is mostly composed of mono-GTBE. We found that blend 4 was not soluble in diesel fuel at room temperature at concentrations above 3% (vol/vol), and thus, no reliable measurement could be made with this blend additive. We present the results for the initial boiling behavior and the distillation curve temperatures and track the di- and tri-GTBEs throughout the distillations. These data will aid in determining the suitability of these types of compounds as oxygenate additives and fuel extenders for diesel fuel.