Ethanol containing ethyl esters of fatty acids as perspective environment like fuel L.K. Patrylak a,⇑ , K.I. Patrylak a , M.V. Okhrimenko a , V.V. Ivanenko a , S.O. Zubenko a , A.M. Levterov b , V.P. Marakhovskyi b , V.D. Savytskyi b a Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and Petrochemistry of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Murmanska Str., 02660 Kyiv, Ukraine b A.M. Podgorny Institute for Mechanical Engineering Problems of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2/10 Dm. Pozharsky Str., 61046 Kharkiv, Ukraine highlights  High power-ecological characteristics of ethyl esters of fatty acids were determined.  Ethyl esters provide the necessary performance and stability of engine work.  The engine does not require the fuel injection system modification.  Ethyl esters characterized by low pollutant emission. article info Article history: Received 1 April 2013 Received in revised form 7 June 2013 Accepted 11 June 2013 Available online 30 June 2013 Keywords: Biodiesel Rapeseed oil Ethyl esters of fatty acids Emissions Engine performance abstract The effect of fatty acid ethyl esters used as biodiesel fuel on power and ecological characteristics of diesel engine work has been studied. It is stated that such ethyl esters produced on the base of rapeseed oil pro- vide the necessary performance of the engine, stability and regularity of engine work as well as the engine does not require the fuel injection system modification. Exhaust gases demonstrate lower CO, CO 2 , NO x and CH contents in comparison with pollutant emissions of methyl esters and mineral diesel fuel. It has been proved that reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions is due precisely to peculiarities of ethyl esters, but not to the ethanol additives. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Biodiesel has become recently as very attractive fuel due to being produced from renewable biomass resources such as vegeta- ble oils and animal fats, because of its biodegradability and non- poisonousness as well as its low emission profiles [1–3]. Thus, the fuels of the biological source base are as an alternative to the usual petroleum fuels. Now biodiesel is produced as a rule by methanol homogeneous catalytic transesterification of vegetable oils and fats. Such a technology has an advantage of the spontane- ously dividing the reaction mixture into biodiesel and glycerol phases, whereas the essential demerits of this technology are the methanol toxicity and its biological non-renewability. By exchanging the methanol by ethanol such spontaneous dividing does not take place. For phases dividing the stages of sur- plus ethanol vaporization, of selective precipitants adding must be used or ethanol of high purity (>99%) as reagent ought to apply. Using of biodiesel substantially reduced emission of non- burned hydrocarbon fragments (HC), carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, sulfur oxides. At the same time the nitrogen oxides content in exhaust gases has been found to in- crease [4]. A range of works [5–9] are devoted to comparative analysis of diesel fuel and diesel fuels with biodiesel additives including ter- nary systems like biodiesel–ethanol–diesel, biodiesel–methanol– diesel. Yilmaz [5] reported that with increase of alcohol concentra- tion in blends, CO and HC emissions increase, while NO x emission reduced. Besides, methanol blends were found as more effective ones than ethanol blends for reducing CO and HC emissions, while NO x reduction was found to be achieved for ethanol blends. Klausmeier [6] claims that ethanol contributes to the moderation of combustion temperature and can, thereby, reduce NO x emis- sions by 10% or more. Randazzo and Sodre [7] noticed that the addition of anhydrous ethanol to B20 fuel blend (20 vol.% of biodiesel in mixture with 0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2013.06.020 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +380 44 559 70 93; fax: +380 44 573 25 52. E-mail addresses: lkp@ukrpost.net (L.K. Patrylak), kipatrylak@ukr.net (K.I. Patrylak). Fuel 113 (2013) 650–653 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Fuel journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel