TY - JOUR
T1 - Superior performance biodiesel from biomass-derived fusel alcohols and low grade oils
T2 - Fatty acid fusel esters (FAFE)
AU - Monroe, Eric
AU - Shinde, Somnath
AU - Carlson, Joseph S.
AU - Eckles, Tyler P.
AU - Liu, Fang
AU - Varman, Arul M.
AU - George, Anthe
AU - Davis, Ryan W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was conducted as part of the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies and Vehicle Technologies Offices. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy ’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525 . Special thanks to Novozymes for generous donation of samples of their enzyme biocatalyst.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2020/5/15
Y1 - 2020/5/15
N2 - We demonstrated production of a superior performance biodiesel referred to here as fatty acid fusel alcohol esters (FAFE) – by reacting fusel alcohols (isobutanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and (S)-(-)-2-methyl-1-butanol) with oil (glyceryl trioleate) using lipase from Aspergillus oryzae. Reaction conditions corresponding to a molar ratio of 5:1 (fusel alcohols to oil), enzyme loading of 2% w/w, reaction temperature of 35 °C, shaking speed of 250 rpm, and reaction time of 24 h achieved >97% conversion to FAFE. Further, FAFE obtained from reacting a fusel alcohol mixture with corn oil were evaluated for use as a fuel for diesel engines. FAFE mixtures showed superior combustion and cold-flow properties, with the derived cetane numbers up to 4.8 points higher, cloud points up to −6 °C lower, and the heat of combustion up to 2.1% higher than the corresponding FAME samples, depending on the fusel mixture used. This represents a significant improvement for all three metrics, which are typically anti-correlated. FAFE provides a new opportunity for expanded usage of biodiesel by addressing feedstock limitations, fuel performance, and low temperature tolerance.
AB - We demonstrated production of a superior performance biodiesel referred to here as fatty acid fusel alcohol esters (FAFE) – by reacting fusel alcohols (isobutanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and (S)-(-)-2-methyl-1-butanol) with oil (glyceryl trioleate) using lipase from Aspergillus oryzae. Reaction conditions corresponding to a molar ratio of 5:1 (fusel alcohols to oil), enzyme loading of 2% w/w, reaction temperature of 35 °C, shaking speed of 250 rpm, and reaction time of 24 h achieved >97% conversion to FAFE. Further, FAFE obtained from reacting a fusel alcohol mixture with corn oil were evaluated for use as a fuel for diesel engines. FAFE mixtures showed superior combustion and cold-flow properties, with the derived cetane numbers up to 4.8 points higher, cloud points up to −6 °C lower, and the heat of combustion up to 2.1% higher than the corresponding FAME samples, depending on the fusel mixture used. This represents a significant improvement for all three metrics, which are typically anti-correlated. FAFE provides a new opportunity for expanded usage of biodiesel by addressing feedstock limitations, fuel performance, and low temperature tolerance.
KW - Biodiesel
KW - Cetane number
KW - Fatty acid fusel esters
KW - Fusel alcohols
KW - Lipase
KW - Low-temperature properties
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U2 - 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117408
DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117408
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85079866582
SN - 0016-2361
VL - 268
JO - Fuel
JF - Fuel
M1 - 117408
ER -