Microemulsion Modeling of Biodiesel to Describe Fuel Upgrading Using Emulsified Water

Abstract

Diesel is an essential energy source in heavy-duty vehicles due to its high energy density and combustion efficiency. However, its non-renewable nature and high pollution emissions are inherent challenges that are sought to be overcome. The production of biodiesel is a reality to ensure a renewable fuel source, being currently used in a mixture with conventional diesel in a percentage up to 12% in Brazil. The pollution emissions are usually settled by using catalysts. However, water/diesel (W/D) microemulsions are a potential and promising solution. Taking this into account, a populational balance model was developed and computationally implemented, in Python language, to describe W/D microemulsions formed using emulsifiers and agitation with a homogenizer. The water droplet distribution was properly determined, and the influence of parameters could be analyzed. The objective of this work is to evaluate the capability of this phenomenological model to describe the process and use it to represent a system using biodiesel. The validation of the considered assumptions was achieved by comparing the computational results with experimental data. As expected, a correction factor was used to ensure the adequate portrayal of the micrometric scale. The proposed methodology proved to be a reliable tool for determining the characteristics of biodiesel microemulsions with fewer experimental efforts.