Study on Ethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether Peanut Oil Monoester as a Novel Biodiesel

In this paper, a novel biodiesel, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether peanut oil monoester, was developed. It was synthesized through transesterification reaction with refined peanut oil and ethylene glycol monomethyl ether as reactants and KOH as catalyst. Its chemical structure was identified through FT-IR, ¹H NMR and GPC analyses. Engine test was conducted and the results showed that engine-out smoke emissions were decreased by 25.0% to 75.0%, CO emissions reduced by up to 50.0% and unburned HC emissions lessened significantly. NOx emissions generally did not change noticeably. The new peanut oil monoester has higher cetane number leading to auto-ignition 1.2°CA earlier than diesel fuel during diesel engine operation. Due to more amount of oxygen contained in the new biodiesel, the engine thermal efficiency was improved by 5.5% to 15.4% when fueled with the biofuel compared with diesel fuel.