Abstract
Bio-oil derived via fast pyrolysis is being developed as a renewable fuel option for petroleum distillates. The compatibility of neat bio-oil with 18 plastic types was evaluated using neat diesel fuel as the baseline. The plastic materials included polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyoxymethylene (POM), POM copolymer, high density polyethylene (HDPE), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG), polythiourea (PTU), four nylon grades, and four thermosetting resins. Specimens of each material were immersed in the test fuels for a period of 16 weeks to achieve full saturation. Except for PP and HDPE, the plastic materials underwent higher volume expansion in bio-oil than in the baseline diesel (which was negligible in most cases). This volume increase corresponds to the higher polarity of the bio-oil. PPS, PET, and PTFE were unaffected by bio-oil exposure, but modest swelling (between 2 and 5%) occurred for the two acetals (POM and POM copolymer), Nylon-12, PBT, PETG, and the four resin grades. More moderate swelling (8-15%) was noted for Nylon-6, Nylon-6/6, and Nylon-11, and excessive swell (>40%) occurred for PTU. The nonpolar nature of PP and HDPE matches that of diesel, leading to higher solubility (swell) in this fuel type. The relatively low volume expansion following exposure indicates that many of the existing infrastructure plastics (excluding PTU) should be suitable for use with bio-oil.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 542-553 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Energy and Fuels |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 18 2018 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance from Jonathan Male and Alicia Lindauer, DOE, and Tim Theiss, ORNL. The authors are also grateful to Esther Wilcox, Katelin Wheeler, and Matthew Oliver (of NREL) for their help in providing bio-oil and facilitating shipment to ORNL for this study. Finally, the context of this manuscript greatly benefited from input by Scott Sluder and two anonymous reviewers. *Telephone: (865) 946-1241. E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID Michael D. Kass: 0000-0001-9072-2100 Katherine Gaston: 0000-0002-1162-0905 Author Contributions The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript. All authors contributed equally. Notes The authors declare no competing financial interest. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| LLC | |
| UT-Battelle | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
