Biodiesel Fuels: The Use of Soy Oil as a Blending Stock for Middle Distillate Petroleum Fuels; Technical rept

摘要

The U.S. Navy is a very large consumer of middle distillate fuels. Fuels for military applications have more severe restrictions than for the usual commercial consumer. One of the most stringent and difficult requirements to meet is that of fuel storage stability. Storage instability is defined in terms of solids formation which can plug nozzles and filters. Middle distillate fuels for the military can remain unused in storage typically for a year and often much longer. Many fuels show significant deterioration in storage. Storage stability complicates the addition of any other type of natural occurring blending stock. Materials added as fuel blending stocks must be chemically stable and not induce instability in the fuel to which it is added. Furthermore, the blending stock must not react with MILSpec required fuel additives. In the present research, a soybean derived fuel was added in concentrations up to 20% in both stable and unstable petroleum middle distillate fuels. The storage stability of the mixture was tested by ASTM 5304. The soy-fuel mixtures proved stable in the stable fuel and reduced the instability in the unstable fuel significantly.