As a derivative product of bio-glycerol, this study first uses solketal as a combustion improver\nfor enhancing diesel engine characteristics. The emulsions of nanometer- and micrometer-sized\ndroplets of solketal, which disperse evenly in the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), are formed by the\neffects of microwave irradiation. The performance of diesel engine fueled with the nanoemulsion of\nULSD with scattered solketal droplets is analyzed and compared to that with the microemulsion.\nThe experimental results show that the nanoemulsions can form when over 15 wt. % surfactant\nmixtures of Span 80 and Tween 80 and less than 5 wt. % solketal are mixed and emulsified with the\nremaining ULSD content, which acts as the continuous phase of the emulsions. The nanoemulsions are\nobserved to have significantly lower brake-specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and higher fuel conversion\nefficiency and exhaust gas temperature than those of the microemulsions and the neat ULSD. However,\nthe bsfc of the nanoemulsions increases with greater engine speed and gradually approaches those\nof the latter two test fuels. In addition, the dispersed solketal droplet sizes are mostly concentrated\naround 127nmwith peak intensity of 12.65% in the nanoemulsions. The microwave-assisted formation\nused in this study is found to successfully produce the nanoemulsions in which all of the dispersed\ndroplet sizes are much smaller than 1000 nm.
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