Development of a new palm oil monoester used as a clean alternative diesel engine fuel

With rapid petroleum depletion in the world, it is of great significance to research alternative fuels for diesel engines. Biodiesel is a kind of biomass energy which is renewable. In the paper, a novel palm oil monoester, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether palm oil monoester (EGMEPOM), has been developed. The new palm oil monoester was synthesized using a refined palm oil and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether. The transesterification reaction was carried out with KOH as catalyst. Its chemical structure was identified with FT-IR, ¹H NMR and GPC analytical techniques. A DI diesel engine was adopted to determine exhaust emissions and combustion performances. A significant decrease in smoke emissions was approached in the experiment. When the diesel engine burnt the palm oil monoester under partial loads at 1600 rpm, smoke emissions were reduced by 69.0% to 81.0%. The decrease by 51.9% to 71.4% was also obtained for its mixture with diesel fuel in the proportion of 1:1 by volume. At 2200 rpm, smoke reductions by 83.3% to 89.3% and by 51.6% to 74.1% were reached respectively for the new palm oil monoester and its mixture by 1;1 with diesel fuel. The new biodiesel was observed to ignite spontaneously about 1.5 °C earlier than the diesel fuel.