Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
  • C10L—FUELS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NATURAL GAS; SYNTHETIC NATURAL GAS OBTAINED BY PROCESSES NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASSES C10G, C10K; LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS; ADDING MATERIALS TO FUELS OR FIRES TO REDUCE SMOKE OR UNDESIRABLE DEPOSITS OR TO FACILITATE SOOT REMOVAL; FIRELIGHTERS
  • C10L1/00—Liquid carbonaceous fuels
  • C10L1/32—Liquid carbonaceous fuels consisting of coal-oil suspensions or aqueous emulsions or oil emulsions
  • C10L1/328—Oil emulsions containing water or any other hydrophilic phase
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10S516/00—Colloid systems and wetting agents; subcombinations thereof; processes of
  • Y10S516/01—Wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, or stabilizing agents
  • Y10S516/06—Protein or carboxylic compound containing

Definitions

• the present invention relates to microemulsions of water in liquid fuels, in particular hydrocarbons or mixtures of hydrocarbons with oxygenated organic compounds. It also includes the process for their preparation as well as the application of such microemulsions as fuels which can be used in particular in engines or burners.
• Microemulsions consisting of hydrocarbons with a lower proportion of water and possibly alcohols, are well known at the present time: many works have been devoted to the preparation of this type of systems, whose industrial interest is undeniable. . It is known, in fact, that a fuel containing water and alcohol, in the form of microemulsion, brings marked advantages over the fuel alone; used in an engine, it can in fact give rise to a much reduced formation of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons in the gases formed. It can also improve the anti-detonating properties. Thus, the incorporation of water, and preferably also alcohol, into a liquid fuel, makes it possible to increase the rate of combustion and to attenuate the effects of pollution.
• HLB hydrophilic-lipophilic balance
• the present invention brings, in this way, an important improvement by the choice of an unforeseen surfactant compound, very different from all those found in the prior art, and which has the advantage of providing emulsions perfectly homogeneous, clear, isotropic, Newtonian and stable.
• the microemulsions according to the invention have the property of being independent of the order in which their constituents are introduced.
• the process according to the invention for the preparation of a microemulsion of water, optionally accompanied by another adjuvant, in particular alcohol, in a liquid fuel, in the presence of a surfactant is characterized in that that the surfactant is an alkylphenoxyalkanoate of a metal, of ammonium or of organic base of formula: in which at least one of the radicals R 1 and R 2 denotes an alkyl, linear or branched, which can contain 1 to 24 preferably 6 to 18 carbon atoms; the second radical is hydrogen when a single radical is an alkyl; n is generally an integer from 1 to 6 and, most often, 1 or 2.
• the cation M is preferably monovalent, in particular Na, K, Li, NH 4 or RNH 3 where R is a hydrocarbon group, which can carry substituents, in particular hydroxyls.
• Typical surfactants which are very suitable for carrying out the invention, are alkylphenoxyacetates, the phenyl nucleus of which carries a relatively long alkyl, in particular in C 18 -C 18. These are, by way of nonlimiting examples : sodium p-octyl-phenoxyacetate, potassium p-decyl-phenoxyacetate, ammonium m-nonylphenoxyacetate, sodium dioctyl-3,5-phenoxyacetate, ammonium p-laurylphenoxyacetate, p-nonylphenoxyacetate of hexylamine, m- diethanolamine stearyl phenoxyacetate, etc. However, other corresponding alkanoates, for example alkyl phenoxy propionates or alkyl phenoxy butyrates, are also suitable.
• the surfactants according to the invention can be used alone or in admixture with other surfactants whose activity they enhance.
• microemulsions which are generally designated by the term co-surfactants, in particular such as alcohols and amines, are very compatible with the alkylphenoxyalkanoates used according to the invention.
• co-surfactants in particular such as alcohols and amines
• the excellent stability of microemulsions obtained, with alcohols as co-surfactants makes it possible, according to the invention, to have very stable fuels, containing water and alcohols, in a wide range of concentration.
• alcohols as co-surfactants constitutes a preferred form of the invention: in fact it has a double advantage; first of all alcohol being a fuel in itself, the co-surfactant is part of the combustible mixture; moreover, since the fuel is a microemulsion of water in a hydrocarbon, it is possible to use alcohols which are not completely dehydrated, which constitutes an advantage from an economic point of view, especially when it is known that in the case of Ethanol-water mixture in particular, there is an azeotrope which makes it difficult and expensive to extract the alcohol in its pure state.
• the composition of the microemulsion it is possible to adapt the composition of the microemulsion to the temperature range, where the microemulsion must remain stable (between - 20 ° and 100 ° C and particularly between -10 ° and + 20 ° C ), by adjusting the proportion and / or the nature of the phenoxyalkanoate.
• the process for the preparation of microemulsions, according to the invention, characterized in that the surfactant is an alkylphenoxyalkanoate, can be carried out in the manner known per se, that is to say by mixing adjuvants affected with liquid fuel. A slight agitation is enough to obtain a stable microemulsion.
• An advantage of this process is that the adjuvants can be mixed with the fuel in any order: thus one can first dissolve the surfactant in water, in the co-surfactant, or in a mixture of the two, and introduce the solution or dispersion obtained in the liquid fuel, with gentle and brief agitation. However, it is also possible to put these various additives directly into the fuel and to stir them just for the time necessary for homogenization.
• the stirring of the medium can be carried out by means of a paddle stirrer, rotating at about 20 to 100 rpm (peripheral speed of the order of 0.5 to 5 m / s ), for 1 to 10 minutes.
• Microemulsions of water with different co-surfactants were prepared by the above-mentioned method, in which water, previously mixed with the co-surfactant and the surfactant, according to the invention, was added to ordinary auto gasoline (fraction of oil boiling between 20 ° and 200 ° C). The operations related to 1 liter of gasoline which was agitated for 3 minutes, after the addition of the adjuvants.
• the table below indicates the proportions of the components in% of the total weight of microemulsion, the surfactant being sodium p-lauryl-phenoxyacetate. It can be seen that it is possible to vary the proportions of water and of co-surfactants within fairly wide limits, which are advantageous for practice.
• microemulsions 1 to 10 are homogeneous, clear, isotropic, Newtonian and stable at room temperature. Their viscosities are close to those of the gasoline used.
• Microemulsions of water or water and an adjuvant can contain from 1 to 10% of water, 1 to 27% of an alcohol or an amine, 1 to 10% of surfactant, and preferably 1 to 6%, microemulsified in a liquid fuel.
• the surfactant used was monoethanolamine p-lauryl-phenoxyacetate, that is to say that its cation was [NH 3 CH 2 CH 2 OH] + .
• the emulsions of these examples are very stable and leave only very small proportions of carbon monoxide on combustion.
• sodium p-nonyl-phenoxyacetate was used as surfactant in an amount of 3.5% of the total.
• isobutanol and 9.5% water a perfectly stable emulsion was obtained, containing 85.7% gasoline.
• Example 1 we replace ordinary auto gasoline with light fuel oil, known under the name of “domestic fuel oil”.
• the stable microemulsion obtained is used in a central heating boiler burner.
• Example 6 The microemulsion of Example 6 is used to power an automobile engine with a capacity of 1,200 ml, at an average speed of 3,500 rpm.
• the fuel consumption is then 9.25 per 100 km (which corresponds to a consumption of 7.9 1 of petrol), the CO release being 6 g / km and that of NO, 0.4 g / km, while - under the same operating conditions - petrol alone leads to a consumption of 9.6 liters per 100 km, with a CO emission of 26 g / km and NO x of 1.6 g / km .
• microemulsified fuel comprises by weight 1 to 10% water, 1 to 27% alcohol and 1 to 6% surfactant, the rest being liquid fuel.
• the invention also comprises, as new surfactants, the alkyl-phenoxy-alkanoates of a metal, of ammonium or of organic base of general formula in which R 1 , R 2 , n, M have meanings given during the description.

Landscapes

• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Liquid Carbonaceous Fuels (AREA)
• Solid Fuels And Fuel-Associated Substances (AREA)
• Emulsifying, Dispersing, Foam-Producing Or Wetting Agents (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (3)

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• 1981
  • 1981-02-17 FR FR8103084A patent/FR2500006A1/fr active Granted
• 1982
  • 1982-02-10 DE DE8282400233T patent/DE3272796D1/de not_active Expired
  • 1982-02-10 US US06/347,589 patent/US4465494A/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1982-02-10 EP EP82400233A patent/EP0058605B1/fr not_active Expired
  • 1982-02-16 BR BR8200826A patent/BR8200826A/pt unknown
  • 1982-02-16 CA CA000396366A patent/CA1197523A/fr not_active Expired
  • 1982-02-16 DK DK066682A patent/DK150545C/da not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1982-02-17 JP JP57022913A patent/JPS57153089A/ja active Pending
  • 1982-02-17 ES ES509675A patent/ES8307284A1/es not_active Expired

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