Alternative Fuels

Biodiesel production from abundant bio-sources has drawn the attention of the academic as well as the industrial communities in recent years. However, one of the most serious obstacles for using biodiesel as an alternative fuel is the complicated and costly purification processes involved in its production. The difficulties involved in the separation of glycerine and other un-reacted reactants and by-products necessitate the development of new competent low cost separation processes for this purpose. In this work, a low cost quaternary ammonium salt-glycerine-based ionic liquid is proposed as a solvent for extracting glycerine from the transesterification biodiesel product. The separation technique was tested on palm oil-based produced biodiesel with KOH as a reaction catalyst. The study investigated the effect of DES:biodiesel ratio and the DES composition on the efficiency of the extraction process. The lab scale purification experiments proved the viability of the separation technique with a best DES:biodiesel molar ratio of 1:1 and a DES molar composition of 1:1 (salt:glycerine). The purified biodiesel fulfilled the EN 14214 and ASTM D 6751 standard specifications for biodiesel fuel in terms of glycerine content. A continuous separation process is suggested for industrial scale application. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0378382009002628/1-s2.0-S0378382009002628-main.pdf?_tid=03519892-0ca2-11e4-b1a5-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1405485250_be2cc2b3e7035da3beada1bc5772fd28 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378382009002628 

An industrial grade acidic crude palm oil (ACPO) pre-treatment process was carried out using ethanesulfonic acid (ESA) as a catalyst in the esterification reaction. ESA was used in different dosages to reduce free fatty acid (FFA) to a minimum level for the second stage of biodiesel production via alkaline transesterification reaction. Different process operating conditions were optimized such as ESA dosage (0.25-3.5% wt/wt), methanol to ACPO molar ratio (1:1-20:1), reaction temperature (40-70°C), and reaction time (3-150. min). This study revealed the potential use of abundant quantities of ACPO from oil palm mills for biodiesel production. The lab scale results showed the effectiveness of the pre-treatment process using ESA catalyst. Three consecutive catalyst recycling runs were achieved without significant degradation in its performance. Second and third reuse runs needed more reaction time to achieve the target level of FFA content. Esterification and transesterification using ESA and KOH respectively is proposed for biodiesel industrial scale production. The produced biodiesel meets the international standards specifications for biodiesel fuel (EN 14214 and ASTM D6751). © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S096085241101025X/1-s2.0-S096085241101025X-main.pdf?_tid=94bdf038-0ca1-11e4-905d-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1405485065_c5dc472305b417258ef704d5ecf5cda6 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21855329 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096085241101025X 

Purification of biodiesel prior to utilizing it as an alternative fuel is an essential industrial practice. Low glycerol content is one of the important pointers needed for passing the EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 international biodiesel standards. In this study, choline chloride (ChCl) as salt and ethylene glycol and 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) were employed to synthesize two ammonium salt-non glycerol based Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES). The physical properties of the synthesized DESs were measured and analyzed. These DESs were utilized to remove all the free glycerol from the palm oil-based biodiesel. The results indicated that all the tested DESs were able to remove all free glycerol successfully. The Central Composite Design (CCD) of the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to to experiment design and optimization of total glycerol removal using ethylene glycol-based DESs and 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide-based DESs. The maximum total glycerol removal by ethylene glycol-based DESs was obtained at 0.66 ethylene glycol mole fraction and at DES/biodiesel molar ratio of 3 with removal efficiency of 23.85% as well as by 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide-based DESs at 0.60 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide mole fraction and at DES/biodiesel molar ratio of 2.93 with removal efficiency of 29.29%. The reusability of these DESs for removing free glycerol and total glycerol content from palm oil-based biodiesel was also investigated. This study proves that both ammonium salt-non glycerol based DESs can be successfully employed to remove the glycerol from palm oil-based biodiesel. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01496395.2012.731124 

Indeed, the engine industries have seen a tremendous growth in the research and development of new-age technologies over the past ten years or so. Even though a huge database is now available on present-day engine technologies, a skillful presentation of those data is a demanding task. At this count, an endeavor has been made here to brief the pros and cons of present-day engine technologies in an elusive manner. In a nut–shell, this article provides an extensive review of the primary principles that preside over the internal combustion engines design and operation, as well as a simplifying framework of new-age engine technologies has been organized and summarized in an elegant way to contribute to this pragmatic field.

Vegetable oil-based fuels are promising alternative fuels for diesel engines because of their environmental and strategic advantages. In this work, binary and ternary blends of palm oil, biodiesel, and diesel fuel were prepared, and dynamic viscosities and densities of blends were measured as functions of temperature. The binary and ternary blends demonstrate a temperature-dependent behavior, and viscosities and densities decreased nonlinearly and linearly with temperature, respectively. The evaluation of the measured viscosities of binary and ternary blends was completed, and the best correlation was obtained by a polynomial regression. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/je900299x 

Oil and Gas drilling activity in the North Sea region is the one interesting thing to look for, given the vast amount resources of which more than 50% were recoverable. But, because of various factors limiting the drilling activity, drilling rate in the region is getting reduced compared to where it is in 2008-2009.
This report includes a detailed company profile for the top players operating in the region. The company information includes key company information and company business description.
Also, this report provides detailed analysis of countries operating in the region, with information on Production Capacity, Reserves and Production.
The Countries Covered in this report are,
• United Kingdom
• Norway
• Denmark
• Netherlands
• Germany
• France
This report is built using data and information from in-house analysis by the team of industry experts at Mordor Intelligence and from primary & secondary research

The production of synthetic fuels from alternative sources has increased in recent years as a cleaner, more sustainable source of transport fuel is now required. The European Commission has outlined renewable energy targets pertaining to transport fuel which must be met by 2020. In response to these targets Ireland has committed, through the Biofuels Obligation Scheme of 2008, to producing 3% of transport fuels from biofuels by 2010 and 10% by 2020. In order to be suitable for sale in Europe, diesel fuels and biodiesels must meet certain European fuel specifications outlined in the EN 590:2009 standard. The aim of this paper was to prepare blends of varying proportions of synthetic diesel (Cyn diesel) fuel, produced from the pyrolysis of plastic, vs regular fossil diesel. The flash point (°C) and cold filter plugging point (°C) of these blends as well as of the conventional petroleum diesel fuel were analysed in relation to compliance with the European fuel standard EN 590. The results confirmed that blending of Cyn diesel with conventional petroleum diesel has a highly significant effect on the properties of the resulting fuel blend. The results show that by increasing the Cyn-diesel content of the blend, the flash point of the blend decreases and the cold filter plugging point increases. Furthermore, comparing the fuel blends to EN 590 specifications has highlighted significant trends. The cold filter plugging points of all of the fuel blends are in compliance with EN 590 specifications. However, only blends of up to, and including, 40% Cyn-diesel are in compliance with EN 590 specifications for flash point. This analysis shows that a blend of 40% Cyn-diesel is in compliance with all of the EN 590 specifications examined, and as such could be placed on the European fuel market (provided that the blend meets the requirements for the other properties in the EN 590 specification). This finding highlights the potential for Cyn-diesel blends to be incorporated into the European and national renewable energy targets.

The production of synthetic fuels from alternative sources has increased in recent years as a cleaner, more sustainable source of transport fuel is now required. In response to European renewable energy targets, Ireland has committed, through the Biofuels Obligation Scheme of 2008, to producing 4% of transport fuels from biofuels by 2010 and 10% by 2020. In order to be suitable for sale in Europe, diesel fuels and biodiesels must meet certain European fuel specifications outlined in the EN 590:2004 and EN 14214:2009 standards. The aim of this project is to prepare blends of varying proportions of synthetic diesel fuel (Cyn-diesel), produced from the pyrolysis of plastic, versus regular fossil diesel. The viscosity (mm2/s) and density (kg/m3) of these blends as well as of the regular diesel fuel were analysed in relation to compliance with the European fuel standard EN 590.