Comparative study of various renewable fuels blends to run a diesel power plant.

In this paper bioethanol/diesel and bioethanol/biodiesel blends, at several concentrations and temperatures, are studied to find its possible commercial usage as a fuel to run a diesel power plant. The tested fuels were: net mineral diesel fuel (D100) , 5 % bioethanol/diesel fuel blend (v/v) (E5D95), 10 % bioethanol/diesel fuel blend (v/v) (E10D90), 15 % bioethanol/diesel fuel blend (v/v) (E15D85), neat biodiesel (B100), 5 % bioethanol/biodiesel blend (v/v) (E5B95), 10 % bioethanol/biodiesel blend (v/v) (E10B90), and 15 % bioethanol/biodiesel blend (v/v) (E15B85). The fuels were tested at: 30, 25, 8 and -18 ºC. This paper shows the observations done in 8 samples during 5 weeks. After each week, each sample was overviewed, and changes related to stability, colour and aggregation were recorded. It has been proved that additives are not necessary to ensure stability of bioethanol/biodiesel blends under low temperature conditions, as the phase separation never happens. But in case of bioethanol/diesel blends some additives are necessary to keep stability under low temperature conditions. Based on this study, it can be concluded that blends of biodiesel fuel with bioethanol up to 15% can be used to fuel a diesel power plant if engine performance tests corroborate it. The same conclusion can be applied to blends of diesel fuel with bioethanol up to 15% blends if additives to keep stability are added.