Blending petroleum fuels with oxygenates is a common approach to stem the depletion of crude oil while also mitigating the impact of their combustion on the environment. It has recently been considered that n-butyl acetate (BA, C6H12O2, boiling point of 399K) could be a viable oxygenate additive to petroleum fuels. This study experimentally examines the influence of BA addition to n-heptane (as a simple diesel surrogate in terms of heptane's combustion chemistry) on combustion of BA+heptane mixtures. The experiments were carried out in the standard atmosphere with stagnant gas and under conditions that promoted one-dimensional gas transport created by fuel evaporation. Eight heptane/BA mixtures with different BA fractions were tested and initial diameters of droplets were between 0.55 to 0.65 mm. The effects of the BA fractional amount were examined on the mixture burn rate, flame structure, and sooting dynamics. Adding BA to heptane was found to reduce the formation of particulate matter. The results are qualitatively explained by the quasi-steady theory of droplet burning.

Combustion characteristics of n-butyl acetate blended heptane mixtures

ACS Fall 2021

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