Testing of Glycerol Ketals as Components of B20, B50 Fuel Blends

The reported work is devoted to testing glycerol ketals in fuel blends. Biodiesel was prepared from the sunflower oil by the FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) formation reaction in a new catalytic system medium. The reesterification reaction was done in a 1:3 molar ratio of oil to alcohol at 55°C with a yield of 83%. The applying a new catalytic system positively influenced the foam production process at biodiesel washing. Due to the absence of the neutralization stage, the supported catalytic system can be reused after water removal through distillation. Important fuel exploitation properties of diesel, biodiesel, and oxygenated diesel blends with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards had been investigated. The obtained results demonstrated that the fuel blends B20 and B50 with (or without) the glycerol ketals have great significance for diesel vehicles than B100 and diesel.