Abstract Number: 346 Working Group: Control and Mitigation
Abstract Cleaner power generation technology is one of the way to deal with the major environmental problems, such as air pollution, human health, and global warming, coming with the uses of traditional fossil fuels. The major energy resources could be varied significantly depended on different country, and lead to several constraints on their greener energy development. For example, the electricity-powered vehicle could be a very “low emission” technique in the country that generate the power from “greener” processes (wind, solar, and hydraulic utilities). However, those techniques are technically hardly to be achieved in the country, who lacks those resources, such as Taiwan. Alternatively, the refuse-derived fuel became more important in a populated densely country. If the wastes of one manufacturer could be systematic transferred to energy resources of other producers, the manufacturing and waste treatment cost, pollutant and carbon emission, and health risk of the local residents might be effectively reduced by our local manufacturers. Therefore, the global economy impact to a local industry could be simultaneously reduced by this buffering system. This study focuses on the energy transformation techniques from wasted hydrous glycerol of the biofuel production processes to a diesel engine fuel. Glycerol was added into diesel by the fractions of 5–20 wt.% with the specific amount of surfactant additions. A homogenizer with 15,000 rpm was employed to emulsify the diesel blend by 5 min, and followed by an 750-kW ultrasonic homogenizer. A 90-day standing and the size distribution of glycerol droplets in diesel were done after the fuel preparation for ensuring they were well-mixed and thermodynamic stable. Furthermore, deionic water was added into pure glycerol by 20% to simulate the biodiesel-produced glycerol composition. Therefore, the stable blends, including G1, G5, G10, G15, and G20 (glyceral, G), were prepared as pure-glycerol-diesel fuels, while HG1, HG5, HG10, HG15, and HG20 (hydrous glycerol, HG) were hydrous glycerol-diesel blends. A 4-stroke, single-cylinder diesel engine generator (5 kW) with an output power control-measurement system, was employed to test the target fuels. The engine speed was controlled at “A” level, which is defined by European Stationary Cycle (ESC) as nlo + 0.25(nhi - nlo). Three loads, including 25, 50, and 75% of maximum engine load, were then tested. The emissions of PM, CO, and HC were monitored by a portable monitoring device (E8500, E Instrument.), while 16 PAHs and 6 nitro-PAHs were collected in particulate and gaseous phases separately by a stoichiometric sampling system. A GC/MS and a LC/MS-MS system were utilized to quantify PAHs and nitro-PAHs, respectively. Results shows that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) were increase along with the increasing glycerol additions to the maximum 9.2%, while the heating value of G20 was 11.8% lower than that of pure diesel. The combustion enhancement of OH‧ provided by glycerol could partially balance the heating value effect. Additionally, the PM, CO, HC, particulate/gaseous PAHs, total PAHs, total BaPeq, and total nitro-PAHs concentrations were all reduced significantly. These finding could also be resulted from that the oxygenated fuel have more fuel-containing O and was pyrolyzed to from more O‧ to easily initiate the combustion reaction. Also, lower volatility could also induce the low temperature combustion to prevent the soot formation. However, the NOx emission increased by glycerol addition, which is the major concern of the modern diesel engine. The better and more completely combustion of fuel provide higher heat release rate and temperature in the cylinder and increase the NOx level in the exhaust. Interestingly, the HG addition further reduce the NOx emission with, when the other pollutants were still inhibited. The optimal fuel based on pollutant emission concern is HG10, reporting an effective use of the waste biproduct from the biofuel production processes. Furthermore, the completely circular economically energy production could be achieved while the feedstocks (alcohol and fatty acid) of biofuel could be replace by refuse of waste material.