Effects of aromatic α, β-unsaturated-carbonyl-based PMA-type pour point depressants on cold flow properties of biodiesel blends and mechanistic insights
摘要
To address the poor low-temperature fluidity of biodiesel, a low-cost, easily prepared, and stable pour point depressant (PPD) must be developed. This study focused on B20 (20 vol% soybean biodiesel + 80 vol% diesel) as the target fuel, tetradecyl methacrylate (C14MC) was used as the core skeleton, and a series of aromatic α, β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, namely 4-benzoylphenyl methacrylate (BM), benzyl cinnamate (BC), and trans-chalcone (TC), were used as secondary structural units to fabricate PPDs at varying molar ratios (1:1, 3:1, 6:1, 9:1, 12:1, and 15:1) via polymerization.. The core skeleton and secondary structural units were polymerized at different molar ratios (1:1, 3:1, 6:1, 9:1, 12:1, and 15:1), and the purified end products were named as C14MC-BM, C14MC-BC, and C14MC-TC, respectively. The effects of the resultant C14MC-BM, C14MC-BC, and C14MC-TC PPDs on the cold filter plugging point (CFPP), solid point (SP), crystallization behavior, and viscosity–temperature characteristics of B20 were systematically investigated. The results demonstrated that C14MC-BM exerted the most beneficial effect on B20, reducing its CFPP and SP by 13 and 16 °C, respectively, at 2000 ppm and a molar ratio of 3:1. Finally, multidimensional characterization techniques revealed that PMA-type PPDs enhanced the cold flow properties (CFPs) of B20 via co-crystallization with the wax crystals in diesel and saturated fatty acid methyl esters in B20.