A case study on preparation, stability and physical properties of water in diesel emulsion

Water in diesel emulsion is often considered as an alternative fuel for IC engines in order to achieve fuel economy and pollution reduction through microexplosion phenomenon. Physical properties of the emulsion play a significant role in achieving the phenomenon of microexplosion. In this work, water in diesel emulsions was prepared containing 9, 12, 15 and 18 water. The emulsions were stabilized by mixing two different nonionic surfactants to get HLB values of 4.97 and 6.31. It was observed that the effect of hydrophilic and lipophilic balance value, amount of water and surfactant dosage has an impact on the stability and other characteristics of water in diesel emulsion. Surface tension of WiDE stabilized with 15 surfactant dosage was found to be increasing with increase in water content. Density of emulsions was increased with increase in water. Almost 50 reduction in sulphur was observed with WiDE compared to diesel. Stability of the emulsion was found to be increased with increase in surfactant concentration. Emulsion droplets stabilized with 15 and 18 water content with proportionate surfactant dosage was recorded lower Sauter mean diameter compared to WiDE with 9 and 12 water proportion. © 2006-2015 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN).