Journals Proceedings

International Journal of Environmental Engineering

Microemulsion fuels from vegetable oil based renewable resource using mixed nonionic surfactant and cosurfactant systems

Author(s) : AMPIRA CHAROENSAENG   , NOULKAMOL ARPORNPONG   , SIRINEE PENGPREECHA   , SUTHA KHAODHIAR   

Abstract

Vegetable oils are of interest as a bio-based feedstock in the production of environmentally friendly alternative fuel. Microemulsification is an emerging technology to formulate mixtures of thermodynamically stable, isotropic liquid fuels, containing two or more immiscible phases stabilized by surfactant. In this study, three components including oil (vegetable oil/diesel blends), ethanol, and surfactant were conducted to formulate bio-based microemulsion fuels. The mixture of oils contain vegetable oil (palm oil or used palm oil or soybean oil) blended with regular diesel or biodiesel at a ratio of 50:50% (v/v), representing the non-polar phase. Ethanol facilitates the viscosity reducer, which is used as the polar phase. Mixed nonionic alcohol ethoxylate surfactant (C12-14-(EO)1-OH) and cosurfactants (octanol and ethylene glycol butyl ether) at a 1:8 molar ratio were selected to formulate reverse micelle microemulsion. The effects of vegetable oil types and cosurfactant structures onto the single phase reverse micelle microemulsion formation were investigated and compared. The results from ternary phase diagram indicated that the vegetable/biodiesel blend requires a lower surfactant concentration to formulate single phase microemulsion. The separate phase of microemulsion fuels containing octanol was significantly lower than those of systems with ethylene glycol butyl ether. The results of this work indicated potential uses of vegetable oils for biofuel production by microemulsion, which could serve as a potential technology for green mobility movement.

No fo Author(s) : 4
Page(s) : 104 - 108
Electronic ISSN : 2374 - 1724
Volume 1 : Issue 2
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