Análise de liberação de energia para biodieseis de segunda geração

Abstract

Second generation biodiesel fuels extracted from sources such as beef tallow and castor bean oil have gone through an increase in production, as they are being gradually added to soybean biodiesel which constitutes the primary biofuel in the country. These alternative materials have potential do increase the fuel’s oxidation stability and, specifically in the case of beef tallow, reduce the cost of producing biodiesel. However, these sources also contribute to making the properties of the biodiesel/diesel blend more distant from those of conventional diesel fuel. Beef tallow biodiesel, for example, has a cetane number of 64.70, compared to 46.44 the soybean and 48 for mineral diesel fuel. In the case of castor bean biodiesel, its viscosity is 14.5 cSt, while soybean’s is 4.2 cSt and mineral diesel’s is 2.5. It is expected that these unique characteristics should have noteworthy consequences in the injection, tomization and combustion processes of the fuel. This work intends to determine the extent of these consequences by characterizing each second generation biodiesel fuel’s impact on the apparent heat release rate. To this end, experimental data on cylinder pressure and a heat release – or energy - analysis model on a combustion zone were utilized. The data were obtained from a medium sized turbo diesel engine operating at steady state for three different load levels. Biodiesel and diesel blends were prepared at concentration levels B10, representative of current commercial use, and B20, corresponding to a greater biofuel adoption in a future scenario. Second generation sources were also compared to data from soybean biodiesel, which forms around 75% of Brazil’s biodiesel production. At B20 concentrations, it was found that beef tallow biodiesel, due to its higher cetane number, hastened combustion by about 1◦ compared to soybean and 3◦ compared to mineral diesel. This anticipation in ignition also caused a reduction in the amount of fuel consumed as a premixed flame. Combustion of castor bean biodiesel was mostly unchanged for high and medium loads compared to mineral diesel fuel. However, on the low load configuration (BMEP = 250kPa) and at B20 concentration, it caused a significant delay in combustion, likely from the collision of the fuel jet against the cylinder wall.