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Characteristics of Vegetable Oils for Use As Fuel in Stationary Diesel Engines - Towards Specifications for a Standard in West Africa

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Characteristics of Vegetable Oils for Use As Fuel in Stationary Diesel Engines - Towards Specifications for a Standard in West Africa Author manuscript, published in "RenewableandSustainableEnergyReviews 22 (2013) 580-597" Accepted author manuscript, published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 22 (2013) 580-597 - DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018DOI : 10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 CHARACTERISTICS OF VEGETABLE OILS FOR USE AS FUEL IN STATIONARY DIESEL ENGINES - TOWARDS SPECIFICATIONS FOR A STANDARD IN WEST AFRICA J. Blin a,b*, C. Brunschwiga, A. Chapuisa, O. Changotadea, S. Sidibea, E. Noumia, P. Girard a,b a Institut International d'Ingénierie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science 01 BP 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso b Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UPR Biomasse Energie, TA B-42/16, 73 rue Jean-François Breton, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France * Corresponding author Tel.: +226 76 16 75 59 E-mail address: [email protected] Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 2 2 Methodology and definitions ..................................................................................... 3 3 Straight vegetable oil as fuel for diesel engines .......................................................... 4 3.1 Straight vegetable oil production processes.................................................................... 4 3.2 Fuel properties of straight vegetable oil ......................................................................... 6 3.2.1 Kinematic viscosity .......................................................................................................... 7 3.2.2 Cetane Number ............................................................................................................... 8 3.3 Impurities ...................................................................................................................... 8 3.4 Vehicle and stationary diesel engines ............................................................................. 9 3.4.1 Vehicle diesel engines ..................................................................................................... 9 3.4.2 Stationary diesel engines ................................................................................................. 9 3.5 Adaptations of diesel engines for use with SVO ............................................................ 10 4 Fuel standards for diesel engines .............................................................................. 11 4.1 General information about fuel standards .................................................................... 11 hal-00814899, version 1 - 18 Apr 2013 hal-00814899, version 1 - 18 4.2 The need for an SVO standard for stationary diesel engines in West Africa .................... 11 4.3 Fossil fuel standards .................................................................................................... 12 4.3.1 International fossil fuel standards ................................................................................. 12 4.3.2 West African specifications ........................................................................................... 13 4.4 Biodiesel standards...................................................................................................... 14 4.5 Vegetable oil quality standards .................................................................................... 16 4.5.1 History ........................................................................................................................... 16 4.5.2 Pre-standard DIN V 51605: applicability and limitations .............................................. 17 5 Towards an SVO standard: Parameters, Test methods & Limit Values ....................... 18 5.1 Selection of the relevant characteristic properties ........................................................ 18 5.1.1 Discarded characteristic properties .............................................................................. 19 5.1.2 Chosen characteristic properties ................................................................................... 19 5.2 Selection of the relevant variable properties ................................................................ 21 5.2.1 Discarded variable properties ....................................................................................... 21 5.2.2 Chosen variable properties ........................................................................................... 22 6 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 25 7 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 27 1 Accepted author manuscript, published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 22 (2013) 580-597 - DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 Abstract West African countries are increasingly interested in producing straight vegetable oil (SVO) for direct use as fuel in diesel engines for stationary applications in the fields of agriculture, power generation and industry. Straight vegetable oil fuel quality, i.e impurities content and physico-chemical properties, is a recurring issue that seriously impedes the development of the sector. However, there is still no standard defining the quality characteristics of vegetable oils for fuel purposes in stationary engines. The aim of this study was to propose a quality standard with a set of specifications (parameters, test method, limit value), which SVOs must comply with in order to be used as fuel in stationary diesel engines without causing breakdowns or serious lifetime reductions. After a brief review of SVO production and use techniques, we present a critical review of existing fuel standards (fossil fuels, biodiesel and European SVO) that must be adapted to the use of SVO for stationary engines, with regard to the requirements of engine manufacturers. Based on this critical analysis and current knowledge of vegetable oil characterization, we propose a simplified, inexpensive and efficient basic standard of seven specifications. This standard enables easy assessment of SVO quality for fuelling a stationary diesel engine. 1 Introduction Development of the biofuel sector is a promising option for many developing countries. Given the impending energy crisis, they are much more vulnerable than wealthy countries and ensuring their energy supply at an affordable cost will become a serious challenge in the years to come. Moreover, most southern countries do not have large investment capacities, so they have to find economical solutions to launch new economic activities in the energy production field. In this context, biofuel production is a major opportunity, particularly where large arable land areas are available and a large share of the population is involved in agriculture, such as in West Africa [1-9]. hal-00814899, version 1 - 18 Apr 2013 hal-00814899, version 1 - 18 One of the most advantageous branches in the biofuel sector is seen to be the production of straight vegetable oil (SVO) for direct use as fuel in diesel engines. There has been renewed interest in this activity in recent years, for stationary applications in the fields of agriculture, power generation and industry [10-15]. These sectors are major consumers of fuel oils, either high distillates (diesel), medium distillates (DDO Distillate Diesel Oil) or heavy Fuel Oil 180 (FO180), which might be wholly or partially replaced with SVO [10, 12, 13]. This solution may contribute to reducing the cost of fossil fuel imports incurred by most developing countries, curb dependence on fossil fuels and limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [14, 16-18]. This is particularly true for African countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania or Uganda, which import 100% of the fossil fuels they need [19]. In recent years, many initiatives for the production of oilseed-based biofuels (SVO or biodiesel) have emerged in West African countries, with the support of governments or through regional initiatives [20]. In this context, many perennial oil crops, especially Jatropha curcas, have been planted and large quantities of SVO are set to be produced in the coming years [21-26]. The most widespread scheme adopted by project promoters is the local production of oilseeds and their conversion into SVO by village-scale extraction units or decentralized cooperative mills, to fuel local stationary diesel 2 Accepted author manuscript, published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 22 (2013) 580-597 - DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.02.018 engines [10, 11, 27]. This scheme has the advantage over biodiesel production of only requiring reasonable investments and offering much more flexibility in terms of production capacity, compared with large-scale centralized biodiesel production [17, 20]. At the beginning of these biofuel promotion campaigns, the concerns mainly focused on the agricultural part of the sector. Today, with the arrival of the first expected harvests, 3 years after planting in the case of Jatropha curcas, biofuel project developers are questioning the extraction and purification techniques, and the use of SVO in diesel engines. In such a decentralized scheme, the processing conditions can be very different from one unit to another, leading to a wide range
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