The Study of Properties in Biodiesel/Butanol and Biodiesel/Diesel/Butanol Blends

Abstract

Biodiesel/butanol and biodiesel/diesel/butanol blends have recently received international attention due to the improvement in their properties because of the addition of butanol to the fuel/s, and the possibility of massive use of such systems in a near future. The data about these blends in the scientific literature are mainly related to the study of fuel consumption, combustion performance, and exhaust emissions (NOx, CO, HC, and smoke) in diesel engines. However, moststudies also include the determination of some properties of technological interest in a few samples.This chapter presents the study of two important properties - flash point (related to safety during transportation and storage of the blends) and refractive index (an optical property of translucent substances that can give an account of their quality) - in biodiesel/butanol and biodiesel/diesel/butanol blends. The flash point has been very poorly studied in these systems, whereas the refractive index has not been studied.Experimental results show that, at low butanol concentrations in the blends, the flash point values decrease sharply, whereas above 20% butanol content in volume in the blends, they remain practically constant. Refractive index values decrease linearly with increasing butanol content in the blends and temperature.