Influence of pressure in RO filtration of crude biodiesel

Abstract

Abstract Considering the virtue of the environment, the usage of biofuel blended fossil fuels for transportation has speeded across the globe. The quality of biodiesel plays an important role in the efficiency of a diesel engine. The biodiesel by transesterification method produces crude biodiesel. The crude biodiesel contains impurities like glycerol, alcohol, catalyst, and water molecules that are suspended in the Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) molecule. These impurities in the crude biodiesel affect the performance of the engine with improper spray pattern, corrosion, nozzle blockage, affecting autoignition temperature and increase the NOx emission in exhaust gas. The shelf life of the stored biodiesel also gets affected by these left-over impurities. In order to overcome and refine it, a novel filtration of crude biodiesel using reverse osmosis membrane has been discussed. ANSYS Finite Element Analysis has been carried out for this investigation. Pressure in an increasing sequence of 100 kPa to 1500 kPa has been varied for the analysis of this multiphase flow through porous medium. The changes in velocity, pressure, density, and viscosity have been observed through the obtained contours. The results include the variation of velocity, density, and viscosity with reference to pressure. The study also indicated that the minimum pressure required for the filtration is 500 kPa. Further, the increase in viscosity and density after the filtration zone, represents the increase in the volume fraction of the impurities.