Stability and Combustion Characteristics of Middle Distillate Blends with Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil

摘要

Mineral oil based fuels for heating systems as well as diesel- and spark-ignition engines are generally mixtures of many components with a broad distillation range. This ensures low viscosity and good cold flow property among others. Nowadays biofuels like biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO), which only partially show these physical properties, are introduced into the fuel market due to political and ecological aspects. As a result these biofuels have to be tested on their compatibility with existing fuel system components like pumps or nozzles. The objective of the presented research project is to determine, whether middle distillates, in this case low-sulfur domestic heating oil (DHO), containing up to 50%(v/v) HVO can be used in standard household heating systems without the occurrence of any application-specific issues. Analytical investigations have shown that HVO has no negative effects on the relevant physico-chemical fuel properties. Short-time combustion tests of DHO/HVO-blends in retention head burners and recirculation burners installed in a test flame tube did not lead to any failures. Currently, long term combustion tests using a standard household heating system are ongoing to show the general applicability of HVO containing blends.