Chemistry 2210A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Transesterification, Dimethyl Ether, Biodiesel

• School: Western University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: Chemistry 2210A/B
• Professor: Keith Griffiths

Document Summary

There is a cost associated with constructing them and maintaining them- no true carbon free energy source. Ethanol c2h5oh: has been used as an automobile fuel for a long time (1800s, easily blended with gasoline, gasoline mixes are designated by an e numbering system. Ethanol has a low vapor pressure: ethanol is not a good cold-climate fuel. If your fuel is totally vapor, it will burn as efficiently as it can. We rely on fact that fuel is volatile so that droplets become vapor in fraction of a second to be ignited. Droplet has to combust from the outside in. Alcohol has low vapor pressure (pressure exerted by a vapor), you can see that pure ethanol is considerably less volatile than gasoline. There is an optimum but it does mean that if you try to go to high alcohol fuels, there"s an issue in the winter.