Impacts of Biodiesel Blends on Fuel Filters Functions, Laboratory and Field Tests Results

2009-01-1876

06/15/2009

Event
Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants Meeting
Authors Abstract
Content
From the end of the 90's, the use of biodiesel fuel (FAME) in blends with petroleum diesel fuel is increasing year after year with a minimum share of 10% defined by the European Parliament for 2020. In parallel, vehicle fleets working with B30 (EN590 - RME) have been developed in France under the impulsion of biodiesel fuel producers.
The aim of this investigation program was to determine the impacts of biodiesel fuel blends (higher than 20%) on diesel fuel filters regarding filter clogging and water separation efficiency.
Experiments show that high efficiency material with MFP 8μm are not presenting accelerated clogging during laboratory filtration tests with oxidized biodiesel fuels and this is confirmed by analysis of used diesel fuel filters from Euro 4 vehicle field tests using EN590 and B30 fuels.
Experiments also confirm higher stability of water droplet emulsions with biodiesel and lower water separation efficiency of coalescing and hydrophobic diesel fuel filters tested with these fuels. Moreover, measurements made on used filters in field tests from vehicles using B30 show complete loss of water separation efficiency (<20%) of filters after short mileages. Filter media analysis has correlated this phenomenon to a modification of the filter media hydrophobic characteristics because of FAME oxidation macro molecules deposited on the media fibers surface.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/2009-01-1876
Pages
7
Citation
Petiteaux, M., and Monsallier, G., "Impacts of Biodiesel Blends on Fuel Filters Functions, Laboratory and Field Tests Results," SAE Technical Paper 2009-01-1876, 2009, https://doi.org/10.4271/2009-01-1876.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Jun 15, 2009
Product Code
2009-01-1876
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English