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Heats of Combustion of Fatty Acids and Fatty Acid Esters

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society

Abstract

The military uses JP-8, a kerosene type hydrocarbon, to fuel most of its vehicles and is seeking a renewable alternative fuel that meets strict JP-8 specifications. Biodiesel is typically a mixture of different alkyl esters produced from the transesterification of triglycerides readily available in plant oils and used cooking oil. To date, no traditional biodiesel meets the requirements for heat of combustion, freezing point, viscosity and oxidative stability to be a stand-alone replacement for JP-8. This work is a fundamental survey of the heat of combustion of single fatty acid esters and a predictive model for estimating the heat of combustion given a known molecular structure. The gross heat of combustion of various C6–C18 fatty acids and the methyl, propyl and isopropyl esters of these fatty acids was measured. This study sought to relate the effect of chain length, degree of unsaturation and branching to the critical fuel property of the gross heat of combustion (H c). It was found that H c (kJ/g) increased with chain length. A nearly linear relationship was found between wt% carbon and hydrogen, and H c. Group contribution models previously published for hydrocarbons and polymers were modified to more accurately predict the heat of combustion of the fatty acids and esters. Modification of the molar heat values of carboxylic acid, methyl, and methylene groups improved correlation of the model with the experimental results.

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Abbreviations

ARL:

Army Research Laboratory

FA/FAME:

Fatty acid/fatty acid methyl ester

H c :

Gross heat of combustion measured experimentally

GCM:

Group contribution method used to predict gross heat of combustion based on atomic structure

Q c :

Gross heat of combustion calculated from the group contribution method

i :

Molecular sub-group assigned a heat value in the GCM

N i :

Number of molecular sub-group i in the structure

M i :

Mass of molecular sub-group i

H i :

Heat value assigned to molecular sub-group i

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by an appointment to the Student Research Participation Program at the US Army Research Laboratory administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy and USARL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Data Matrix Solutions, Inc., US Army Research Laboratory, RDRL-WMM-C, 4600 Deer Creek Loop, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 21005-5066, USA

    Felicia Levine

  2. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Ronald V. Kayea III, Robert Wexler, D. J. Sadvary & Cory Melick

  3. US Army Research Laboratory, RDRL-WMM-C, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 21005-5066, USA

    John La Scala

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  1. Felicia Levine
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  2. Ronald V. Kayea III
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Correspondence to Felicia Levine.

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Levine, F., Kayea III, R.V., Wexler, R. et al. Heats of Combustion of Fatty Acids and Fatty Acid Esters. J Am Oil Chem Soc 91, 235–249 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-013-2367-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-013-2367-0

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