Contino, F.

Lenaerts, S.

Maes, R.

Potters, G.

Open Marine Archive

 19 
Does a possibility exist to optimize the fatty acid composition of 
FAME’s in order to decrease the concentration of NOx and PM in the 
exhaust gas composition? 
Maes Rafael
1
, Potters Geert
1
, Lenaerts Silvia
2
 and Contino Francesco
3 
1
  Department of Sciences, Antwerp Maritime Academy, Noordkasteel oost 6, 2030 Antwerpen, 
Belgium 
 E-mail: raf.maes@hzs.be 
2 
Bioengineering, Antwerp University, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium 
3
  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brussels Free University, Pleinlaan 2,1050 Elsene, Belgium 
 
As our natural resources of oil and gas are limited, we need to look for other means to produce 
energy. Moreover, the way we use our energy resources is equally unsustainable in view of pollution. 
Alternative energy sources are not only needed to avoid too much pollution but are a responsibility 
to a sustainable future. Two of the most widespread alternative energy sources are wind and solar 
energy. However, they are not bound to play a major role in maritime transport in the foreseeable 
future: while there is a start in using hybrid and electric cars, transport by sea is still fueled by mineral 
oil products. An alternative resource could be biodiesel. To have a sustainable biodiesel production 
however, we cannot use plants grown on arable land because the world population is in even greater 
need to fulfill its basic needs of food. One major solution for this is using the sea in which to grow 
seaweed or algae for the production of oils to process into a truly sustainable biodiesel. 
 
The most common fatty acids found in vegetable oils are palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic 
acid and linolenic acid, which can be turned into methyl-esters (FAME). Each FAME has its own 
combustion characteristic from which automatically follows that they all produce NOx and PM in a 
different way during combustion. The major objective of this research is therefore to create an 
optimized mixture of these FAMEs to minimize NOx and PM production. 
 
The effect of different biodiesels, RME and FAME0, was tested on a one cilinder diesel generator 
without turbo mechanism. There was a significant influence in producing NOx and PM due to the 
different composition of FAME’s in the biodiesel. We tested by means of effectsizeanalysis at 5% 
confidencelevel and found following results. The table below gives the results of the influence on the 
production of NO, NO2 an PM of the different types of FAME where Czn is methyl palmitate, Can is 
methyl stearate, Cae is methyl oleate, Cat is methyl linoleate and Cad is methyl linolenate. Lowering 
the content of the elements with a positive effect size and increasing the content of the elements with  
a negative effect size provide a start for further determining an optimal fatty acid composition. 
 
FAME0 Czn Can Cae Cat Cad 
NO NA NA NA NA NA 
NO2 NA NA -0,028 -0,124 -0,24 
PM 0,037 0,057 -0,074 -0,222 -0,604 
RME      
NO NA NA 0,352 NA 0,837 
NO2 NA -0,243 0,047 NA 0,11 
PM -0,068 NA 0,153 NA 0,387 
 
Keywords: FAME; biodiesel; pollution; airquality; sustainable transport  


Does a possibility exist to optimize the fatty acid composition of FAME's in order to decrease the concentration of NO<sub>x</sub> and PM in the exhaust gas composition?

http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/311844.pdf

Does a possibility exist to optimize the fatty acid composition of FAME's in order to decrease the concentration of NO<sub>x</sub> and PM in the exhaust gas composition?

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