Production of levulinate ester as fuel additive using various heterogeneous catalyst

• Main Author: Amir Sufi Bin Mohd Said
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Levulinate ester; Fuel additive; Heterogeneous catalyst

Fuel additives can be defined as performance modifiers that are added to fuel products to enhance certain properties and or to provide additional properties. It is widely used in the automotive industry as it is known to increase the quality of fuel used in vehicles. In this project, the effect of various heterogeneous catalysts on the production of levulinate ester as fuel additives were studied. Blended fuel with fuel additives were prepared. The properties of the blended diesel were also investigated in this study. Fuel additives were produced via esterification reaction of levulinic acid. Transition metal-based catalyst, Fe2(SO4)3 exhibited the highest levulinate ester conversion rate of 67.33% under the reaction temperature of 70°C, 10 wt% catalyst loading, 1:10 levulinic acid to ethanol molar ratio for 5 hours reaction time. Meanwhile, Amberlyst B20 and EFB magnetic catalyst catalyzed esterification reaction achieved 61.85% and 63.54% conversion rate. The fuel additives were characterized by GC-FID (Gas Chromatography and Fire Equipped Detector). The total peak area of 7163.68945 pA*s of the Fe2(SO4)3 levulinate ester (FE-LE) indicates that the Fe2(SO4)3 catalyst able to catalyzed the esterification reaction to produce a high concentration of levulinate ester. The properties of B2.5E2.5 blended diesel were characterized where the EFB-LE blended diesel (BD-EFB-LE) able to achieve the lowest density measurement of 845.7 kg/m3and the AM-LE blended diesel (BD-AM-LE) achieved the lowest kinematic viscosity of 3.139 mm2/s. Low density and kinematic viscosity of fuel will give a positive effect on the engine and during cold weather. Consequently, fuel additive was successfully produced and it appears to be acceptable as a density improver for diesel fuel