相平衡理論およびソノケミストリーを用いた重質系燃料の改質に関する基礎的研究: 第2報，燃料の多成分化によるソノケミカル反応の高効率化

摘要

A sonochemistry process reforms heavy fuel oil or solid fuel into lighter liquid fuel. The sonochemistry is originated from the behavior of acoustic cavitation bubbles; the nucleation, growth, and violent collapse. Here, an instantaneous hot spot region with local temperature of several thousand Kelvin and pressure of several hundred Mega-Pascal is generated by the cavitation bubble collapse. This hot-spot causes the decomposition of carbon bond and the removal of nitrogen, aromatic series. The rate of sonochemical reaction is affected by vapor pressure of fuel, and thus is decreased for heavy fuels. Therefore, the authors have proposed the application of sonochemistry into heavy fuel oil mixed with higher volatility fuels, because the mixed fuels can improve volatility characteristics due to formation of two-phase region including both vapor and liquid phases. In this paper, the cavitation behavior of mixed fuel is clarified and the result shows that high efficiency fuel reformulation is accomplished by applying sonochemistry to mixed fuel.%石油枯渇や環境保全の観点から，石油代替エネルギの開発や内燃機関の性能向上は現在の重要課題であるが，その一方で，限られた石油資源の有効利用も重要である．石油精製時において副生成される重油やアスファルトは，その劣悪な性状故にエネルギ源としての需要が減少し余剰傾向にある．これら重質系燃料の有効利用の観点から，軽質液体燃料への改質が有望視されている．