<p align="left">The viscosity and solubility of ethanol/diesel fuel blends have an important influence on its application in diesel engines. Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to study the effects of different alcohol additives on the viscosity and solubility of the blends between diesel and anhydrous ethanol. Among these alcohols, n-butanol, n-heptanol and n-decanol were selected for investigating the influence of alcohol chain length on solubility and viscosity, while the effects of straight and branched chain on solubility were studied via comparing with four isomers of butanol.Additionally, effects of number of hydroxyl groups were studied by using 1,4-butanediol. The results showed that the viscosity of the blends increased with the increasing of alcohol carbon number. The analysis of diffusion coefficient represented that the alcohol additives enhanced the molecular mobility and activity, and alcohols with higher carbon numbers provided a better inter-soluble capacity. It was clearly that the straight chain butanols had better soluble capacity than that of branched structures. The linear n-alcohol with same carbon number had the best effects, while the effects of polyhydric alcohols became worse as a result of hydrogen bonds. Taking these factors into account, n-heptanol can be recommended as a co-solvent additive for ethanol/diesel system due to the acceptable fuel properties and soluble performance.</p>

Influence of Alcohol Additives on the Viscosity and Solubility of Ethanol/Diesel Fuel Blends: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/PVP/PVP2021/volume/85314

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