Development of super absorbent hydrogel for removing water from fuels: diesel and biodiesel

• Grant number: 10/02817-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Industrial Operations and Equipment for Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Maria Regina Wolf Maciel
• Grantee: Patricia Bogalhos Lucente Fregolente
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project proposes development of technology that uses absorbent polymeric hydrogels for removal of water in fuels. Water is a major source of fuel contamination and generally causes three main problems: corrosion of engine fuel system and storage tanks, microbial growth and formation of sludge. Fuels can incorporate water during the production, transport or storage. In the case of fossil fuels, like diesel, a great part of water founded comes from the distillation towers where steam is added to the rectification of product. Water can be also incorporated in the fuel during the storage, in tanks through vents and seals and due to the high humidity in the air. In the case of biodiesel, which is composed of fatty acid methyl or ethyl esters, the presence of oxygen in these esters molecules promotes great affinity with water. This way, high relative humidity is enough to increase the water content in the biodiesel during the storage. The maximum amount of allowable water content in biodiesel as specified in ASTM standart D6751 is 500 ppm. For the diesel, less than 200 ppm of water is required to avoid problems of opacity and turbidity in the supplying of the product. Thus, there is a need to know what kind of water is presents in the diesel/biodiesel (free, soluble or emulsionated) and to obtain new technologies to remove water to avoid the problems that its presence causes. One alternative is to use a water absorbent material. The development of a highly absorbent hydrophilic hydrogel to remove water from diesel and biodiesel is a novel idea. The reason for investigating the use of hydrogels as water absorbent material for removing water from diesel/biodiesel is based on the advantages that hydrophilic hydrogel particles swell in the presence of a good solvent and soak the solvent (water in this case) into the cross-linked matrix of the particle. For this study, syntheses and characterization of hydrophilic hydrogel, obtaining of curves of water removal and experiments of absorption of water in diesel/biodiesel are the main points of this line of research. (AU)