Chemical Kinetic Study of the Oxidation of a Biodiesel−Bioethanol Surrogate Fuel: Methyl Octanoate−Ethanol Mixtures

There is a growing interest for using bioethanol−biodiesel fuel blends in diesel engines but no kinetic data and model for their combustion were available. Therefore, the kinetics of oxidation of a biodiesel−bioethanol surrogate fuel (methyl octanoate−ethanol) was studied experimentally in a jet-stirred reactor at 10 atm and constant residence time, over the temperature range 560−1160 K, and for several equivalence ratios (0.5−2). Concentration profiles of reactants, stable intermediates, and final products were obtained by probe sampling followed by online FTIR, and off-line gas chromatography analyses. The oxidation of this fuel in these conditions was modeled using a detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism consisting of 4592 reversible reactions and 1087 species. The proposed kinetic reaction mechanism yielded a good representation of the kinetics of oxidation of this biodiesel−bioethanol surrogate under the JSR conditions. The modeling was used to delineate the reactions triggering the low-temperature oxidation of ethanol important for diesel engine applications.