Identification of the Chemical Components Derived from the Two‐Phase Electrocoagulation of Diesel Fuel

Abstract

In this study, two‐phase electrocoagulation (EC) approach was developed and used to investigate blend of bio‐diesel and petro‐diesel (B10) stability under the electrochemical treatment. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) was used to analyze the aliquots before and after the reaction. The major compounds were alkanes and aromatic compounds with the minor contents of aldehydes, ketones, esters, alkenes, alkynes, halogens, oxygenated compounds, and heterocyclic compounds. The selected condition for the reaction was 10 V and 60 min which resulted in 9.9×109 counts per s total peak area of compounds containing from nine to seventeen carbon atoms (C9 to C17) compared with 6.8×108 counts per s for the control. The peak areas of the straight chain alkanes increased from 12 % to 33 % of the total peak areas observed after the experiment. Compounds with higher peak areas were found between C12 to C14 with the retention indices range of 1155–1678. The EC treatment mainly increased the straight and branched alkane and alcohol contents with the decreasing contents of branched cyclic alkanes. The developed system could be adapted to study the stability of other types of fuels. This is cost effective and can be performed within an hour at room temperature under atmospheric pressure.