Combustion studies of n-butyl acetate synthesized by a new biological process and comparisons with neat n-butyl acetate

Conference · Mon May 24 04:00:00 EDT 2021

OSTI ID:1998247

Wang, Yujie ^[1]; Chen, Zhu; Haefner, Matthew; Guo, Songtao; DiReda, Nicholas; Ma, Yuechao; Wang, Yi; Avedisian, Thomas

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1. Cornell University

Blending petroleum fuels with biofuels is a common approach for stemming the depletion of crude oil while also mitigating the impact of their combustion on the environment. It has recently been considered that n-butyl acetate (BA, C6H12O2, boiling point of 399K) could be a viable biofuel additive to diesel fuel. This paper reports the combustion dynamics of BA droplets in the absence of external convection. Two grades of BA were examined: one synthesized by a new process that uses a solventogenic Clostridium strain through an extractive fermentation process using n-hexadecane as the extractant (SBA); the other commercially available as a high-purity (99.9%) 'neat' BA grade produced by Fischer esterification (NBA). The mass concentration of by-products from the synthesis process amounted to approximately 6% of the total composition and included n-butanol, n-hexadecane, iso-propyl alcohol and ethyl acetate. The platform used to study the combustion of commercial and synthesized BA was an isolated droplet burning with spherical symmetry. Initial droplet diameters were fixed at 0.6 mm. Experiments were carried out in a drop tower to promote one-dimensional transport dynamics, in the standard atmosphere, and with ignition accomplished by spark discharge. Differences in droplet burning rates and flame structures were undetectable between NBA and SBA, despite the differences in burning among the SBA components individually. The results presented show that the new synthesis process for butyl acetate yields a sustainable alternative to conventional methodologies with burning characteristics that are identical to NBA in stagnant gas transport fields.

• Research Organization: Combustion Institute
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: EE0008483
• OSTI ID: 1998247
• Report Number(s): DOE-CORNELL-0008483-2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English