Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Gaseous and particulate emissions of a micro gas turbine fuelled

by straight vegetable oil–kerosene blends
F. Chiariello a,⇑, C. Allouis b, F. Reale a, P. Massoli a,⇑
a
Istituto Motori – CNR, Via Marconi 8, 80125 Napoli, Italy
b
Istituto di Ricerche sulla Combustione – CNR, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper reports the experimental results concerning emissions from 30 kWe commercial micro gas tur-
Available online 28 November 2013 bine feed with blends of straight vegetable oil with fossil fuel. Both gaseous and particulate emissions were
measured at full and partial load for blends 10% v/v and 20% v/v of rapeseed and sunflower oils with JET A1
Keywords: kerosene. The variations of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide emissions were taken into account to eval-
Particulate matter emissions uate the combustor behavior at different loads and blends. The effects of the fuel composition on the vari-
Gaseous emissions ations, in terms of concentrations and dimensions, of ultrafine – particulate matter were also evaluated.
Micro gas turbine
NOx and CO emissions are practically insensitive to the composition of the fuel being the differences
Biofuel
Straight vegetable oils
within the experimental uncertainty of the instrumentation. This demonstrates a similar overall combus-
tion at both partial and full load for the five fuels used (Jet A1 and four SVO blends). On the contrary, particle
matter emission is three times for blends of rapeseed oil and more than fifty times greater for blends of sun-
flower oil with respect to pure Jet A1. The differences are ascribed to the chemical structure of the vegetable
oil tested.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction such applications and technologies [3,4]. Recent papers present

In the last years strong effort has been done to reduce the im-
pact of gas-turbine operation on the environment. At the begin-
ning, much work has been done to reduce the production of NOx,
due to their role in ozone depletion and the creation of photochem-
ical smog. In recent years, legislators have begun focusing on
reducing emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons
and particulate matter. The majority of gas-turbine manufacturers
looked towards new combustion concepts to comply with legisla-
tive demands. More recently, the ability to burn liquid fuels with
low emissions using lean premix technology has also been com-
mercially proven. The next step should consist in extending that
to a wider range of liquid fuels since the market seeks to make
use of cheaper, locally available and preferably renewable fuels.
The use of liquid biofuels for stationary power generation is
rapidly spreading in the EU, and a further diffusion can be easily
expected in the near future [1,2]. Several commercial systems have
been operated either on biodiesel (esterified vegetable oil) or on
pure vegetable oil (e.g., as rape, sunflower, palm oil). Feeding a
pure vegetable oil and/or its blends to micro gas turbines, however,
is still at experimental level. Several research projects dealt about
data about gaseous emissions from micro gas turbine [5,6].
Particle emissions from combustion sources have been receiv-
ing increasing attention from the scientific community and envi-
ronmental regulatory agencies since they have been considered
as a significant risk for human health and environmental quality
[7,8]. In the last decade, it came out that the sub-micrometers par-
ticles became of particular concern [9]. Particles are generated in
combustion by many sources, such as industrial devices, power
generation, and transportation activities.
The present paper describes tests performed on a low emission
micro gas turbine for power generation, providing electrical power
up to 30 kWe. Different liquid fuels, including commercial Jet A-1
kerosene, blends of kerosene with pure rapeseed oil and sunflower
oil, were tested under different loads. Primarily attention has been
focused on the measures of the size distribution functions of the
particles emitted from the system by using a Low Pressure Electri-
cal Impactor. Moreover, stable gases were sampled and continu-
ously analyzed during the experiments.
2. Experimental set-up

⇑ Corresponding authors. Tel.: +39 081 7177 134; fax: +39 081 2396 097 2.1. Micro gas turbine
(F. Chiariello). Tel.: +39 081 7177 183; fax: +39 081 2396 097 (P. Massoli).
E-mail addresses: f.chiariello@im.cnr.it (F. Chiariello), c.allouis@irc.cnr.it The tests were carried out on a Capstone Micro Gas Turbine,
(C. Allouis), f.reale@im.cnr.it (F. Reale), p.massoli@im.cnr.it (P. Massoli). model C30, a single-shaft MGT which generates, by a regenerative

0894-1777/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2013.11.013
 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22 17

Nomenclature

MGT micro gas turbine YS soot yield [C]soot/[C]fuel

SVO straight vegetable oil si soot induction time
Dp particle aerodynamic diameter YS,VO vegetable oil soot yield
LHV low heating value YS,kerosene Jet-A1 soot yield
PM particulate matter

cycle, 30 kW of electrical power with a global efficiency of 27% at

full load conditions. Table 1 shows the main technical data de- Table 2
Properties of rapeseed and sunflower oil [11].
clared by the manufacturer. The system uses a lean premix com-
bustor optimized to achieve low emissions levels at full power Properties Rapeseed oil Sunflower oil
when operated with natural gas and liquid fuels as diesel and ker- LHV (MJ/kg) 36.8 36.5–36.9
osene. In case of liquid fuels, the injection system is composed of Density @ 15 °C (kg/m3) 911.5–921 915–920
three fuel injectors, each comprising a plain-jet airblast atomizer, Viscosity @ 40 °C (mm2/s) 35.1–37.4 36.5–36.9
four orifices for the introduction of combustion air and an helical Flash point (°C) 246 272–274
Residual carbon (% mass) 0.31 0.28
swirler [10]. Iodine value (g/100 g) 94–120 132
In order to facilitate engine turndown and part load operations, C (% mass) 79.6 78.2
the air assisted atomizers inject the fuel air mixture in a staged ap- Fatty acid (%)
proach with the fuel sprayed adjacent to the combustion air in a Palmitic 3.5–4.7 6.4
confined area. The presence of the preheated and swirling air al- Oleic 54.1–64.1 17.7
lows a good droplet evaporation and minimize fuel impingement Linoleic 22.3–27.2 72.9
Linolenic 7.14–8.2 0
on the walls of the combustion chamber. As a consequence the
combustion occurs at short distance downstream of the exit of
the fuel injectors [10]. acids respect rapeseed oil while in the latter the percentage of
monounsaturated acids is greater.
2.2. Fuels The high viscosity of SVO is a critical parameter for having a
good combustion due to the great influence of viscosity on spray
Vegetable oils are primarily composed of triglycerides (90– formation. Four techniques can be used to reduce the viscosity of
98%), with a small amounts of mono- and di-glycerides. Triglycer- vegetable oils; namely heating, dilution or blending, micro-emul-
ides contain three fatty acid molecules and a glycerol molecule, sion and trans-esterification.
significant amounts of oxygen, free fatty acids (generally 1–5%), The simplest procedure is the heating; however, limits imposed
phospholipids, phosphatides, carotenes, tocopherols, sulfur com- by the MGT manufacturers on the fuel line, as well as the sensitiv-
pounds and traces of water. In Table 2 the principal characteristics ity of the biological fuel to excessive temperatures, can prevent the
of sunflower and rapeseed oil, that have similar properties but dif- attainment of sufficiently high temperatures for reducing SVO vis-
ferent composition in terms of mass percentage of fatty acids, are cosity to the typical values of diesel oil or kerosene [5]. Blending
showed; linoleic and oleic acids are predominant in sunflower does involve very limited additional energy and environmental
and rapeseed, respectively [11]. costs in the fuel life cycle but it is suitable only in case of low per-
Using straight vegetable oils (SVO) as fuel, the high viscosity, centage of SVO in the mixture. In absence of oil heating, in fact, cin-
greater than traditional fossil fuels such as diesel or kerosene, ematic viscosity increases almost linearly for low concentrations
can contribute to an incomplete combustion due to worse fuel and then grow rapidly for vegetable oil fractions higher than 50%
spray characteristics with poor atomization, lower volatility and [13,15]. In this paper SVO-fossil fuel blends with a low percentage
inefficient mixing of fuel with air. This involves an increase in par- of vegetable oil were used. This permitted the feeding of the engine
ticulate emissions, combustion chamber deposits and gum forma- without any system modifications, being the fuel viscosity close to
tions [12]. The flash point is higher than a fossil fuel (the value for the kerosene one.
diesel is in the range of 93 °C) and this can be attributed to the
longer carbon chain and degree of unsaturation of the SVO com-
pared to diesel fuel [13]. 2.3. MGT exhaust emissions measurement
Another important aspect in the comparison between SVO and
fossil fuels is the oxidation stability that can influence the fuel The monitoring of the gaseous emissions was performed with a
properties in case of long storage. Oxidation, that is mainly influ- portable flue gas analyzer (TESTO 350 S). The detected gases were
enced by the degree of unsaturation of fatty acids, can causes high- O2, NO, NO2, CO, SO2 and CO2. Temperature and pressure were also
er values of the viscosity respect the standard data [14]. In this measured. The flue gas analyzer is provided with a Peltier gas prep-
respect the difference in fatty acid composition assumes great aration unit with a hose pump to regulate condensate disposal, as
importance: sunflower oil is mainly based on polyunsaturated well as a fresh air valve for long-term measurements lasting sev-
eral hours. A serial port connects the gas analyzer to a PC; a soft-
ware manages all the functions of the analysis system and
Table 1
main characteristic of the Capstone Micro Turbine C30. records data with a maximum sampling rate of 1 Hz. The typical
NOx concentration value at the MGT exhaust is lower than
Standard liquid fuels Diesel oil, kerosene, biodiesel
35 ppm at full load. Table 3 reports the measurement range and
Net electrical efficiency @ full load 27% accuracy of the used instrumentation. All the measured pollutants
NOx emissions @ 15% O2 <35 ppm
concentrations were corrected to be conventionally reduced to 15%
Exhaust gas temperature 275 °C
O2 content [16].
18 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22

Table 3
Gaseous species and measurement ranges. 4. Results and discussions
Species Meas. range Accuracy
4.1. Gaseous emissions characterization
Testo 350 S O2 0–25 vol.% ±0.8% fs
CO 0–500 ppm ±2 ppm
NOx 0–300 ppm ±2 ppm
The impact of the fuel properties on gaseous emissions was ana-
CO2 0–50 vol.% ±0.3 vol% + 1% mv lyzed by comparing the exhaust composition at two different load
conditions as we set above. Fig. 1 reports the NOx and CO concen-
trations at the exhaust, referred at 15% of oxygen content, for all
test studied.
2.4. Particle measurements The plotted data are average values of the measured concentra-
tions in a time interval of ten minutes. The experimental data con-
An Electrical Low Pressure Impactor ELPI™ was employed to firm that the addition to kerosene of small percentage of SVO (less
determine particle size distributions. It is a real-time particle size than 20% in volume fraction), both rapeseed and sunflower oil, typ-
spectrometer for real-time monitoring of aerosol particle size dis- ically affects marginally the gaseous emission behavior of the
tribution in the range of 0.03 10 lm with 12 channels. With filter microturbine.
stage the size range was extended down to 7 nm. The operating Although a slight trend can be observed in NOx and CO produc-
principle is based on particle charging, inertial classification in a tion, the variation is so limited that no relevant differences in the
cascade impactor, and electrical detection of the aerosol particles. global behavior of the microturbine can be gathered; even, both
Humidity and volatile compounds affect ELPI™ results since it pollutants levels approach the measurement uncertainty of the
measures the sample particle concentration in real time which emission analyzer used in this work.
usually means that wet concentration of the particles is measured. The spray formation process, in an airblast atomizer like that
This problem was overcome by heating the sampling line and the one installed on the C30 unit, is normally dominated by viscosity
ELPI™ unit both at 180 °C. The inlet gas temperature is continu- effects (and, in turn, by fuel temperature) and the air to fuel ratio
ously monitored. (atomizing air flow rate) [17]. The tests were performed without
changing the air to fuel ratio and using fuel blends at room temper-
3. Test protocol ature. The viscosity of a SVO blend in a fossil fuel remains very
close to the viscosity of the fossil fuel for volume fractions less than
In this investigation five fuels were used to supply the micro gas 40%.
turbine: a commercial kerosene Jet-A1 and four blends with sun- Since in the experimentation it was used a maximum concen-
flower and rapeseed oils. tration of SVO of 20%, the spray formation can be expected very
As discussed above, the choice of blending straight vegetable similar to the case of Jet-A1 fuel.
oils with a traditional fossil fuel is motivated by the necessity to This consideration is confirmed by observing that the measured
decrease the SVO viscosity without a further energetic cost or O2 concentration in the exhaust stream remained stable varying
any MGT layout modification. The following blends were used for from 19.1 to 19.4 percent for 25 kW and 15 kW, respectively. Also
each vegetable oil: 10% v/v and 20% v/v of oil in kerosene. In the the CO2 concentrations remained constant independently of the
Table 4 the adopted fuels are showed. fuel, ranged from 4.3% to 4.7% in volume, for increasing power
The study was focused on the MGT steady state behavior at two output.
different load conditions: full load (25 kW) and partial load
(15 kW). 4.2. Particles emissions characterization
The micro-turbine start-up and shut down logic and procedure
were the same of the standard operations. The methodology In order to analyze further the SVO blending effects on the
adopted is a typical fuel switching. The test procedure consists of microturbine behavior, the concentration and the aerodynamic
the following phases, iterated for each mixture that was used: size distribution of non volatile particles in the exhaust stream
by using the ELPI Impactor were examined.
 start-up to reach the 25 kW power reference with Jet-A1 kero- Fig. 2 reports the cumulative normalized current distribution of
sene; this phase allows MGT to be switched on and the thermal the impactor stages corresponding to the sums of the contributions
condition to be reached; measured in each channel during all the measurement campaign;
 changing in power reference down to 15 kW; it is possible to note that signals collected from stages beyond
 fuel switching to a SVO/kerosene blend at 25 kW; stage 8 (Dp > 0.949 lm) offer a contribution less than 5% to the to-
 changing in power reference down to 15 kW; tal current measured. This is due to the fact that these stages re-
 fuel switching to pure kerosene for at least 5 min; this phase cord largely diffusion contributions and image charge signals
allows the SVO residues to be removed from the pipes and from ultrafine particles rather than true coarse particle concentra-
the fuel supply system, and to reach the benchmark standard tions [18,19]. For this reason in our treatment we omit all these
conditions. contributions.
Fig. 3 shows the chrono-histogram of the concentration of par-
ticles in the range 0.007–0.949 lm, during the experimental cam-
Table 4 paign. The filled regions represent the use of Jet-A1; as mentioned
Fuels matrix. above, pure kerosene was adopted for the procedure of start-up
Fuel Kerosene Rapeseed Sunflower and shut-down, and between fuel switching as residues removal
Jet-A1 v/v (%) oil v/v (%) oil v/v (%) in the fuel supply system.
K 100 0 0 It is possible to note that particle concentration in the exhaust
Blend A 90 10 0 stream strictly depends on the SVO adopted for the blending, while
Blend B 80 20 0 typically slight influences can detect by the microturbine load (for
Blend C 90 0 10 each kind of fuel two different load conditions were tested) and by
Blend D 80 0 20
the blending percentage. In particular, the addition of rapeseed oil
 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22
Fig. 1. NOx and CO concentrations varying fuel and load (filled areas represent the uncertainty of the measurements, r).
Fig. 2. Total current distributions vs the aerodynamic geometric mean of a channel
(particle aerodynamic diameter).
to Jet-A1 increases the particle concentration three times with re-
spect to the benchmark (kerosene) one, either for the blend at 10%
and 20%. Similarly, sunflower oil addition raises particle concentra-
tion by more than one order of magnitude respect to kerosene par-
ticulate emissions.
The similar LHV of rapeseed and sunflower oils, combined with
the analysis of the gaseous pollutants discussed before, lead to be-
lieve that the difference in concentration levels are mainly due to
the chemical structures of the vegetable oils tested. This hypothesis
Fig. 3. Chrono-histogram of particle concentration.
19
is reinforced by the consideration that the emission increasing from
kerosene to sunflower blends is more than one order of magnitude,
without any sensitive rising in the fuel consumption.
Further considerations of the SVO blends behavior can be de-
rived from the analysis of the size distribution functions of the par-
ticles emitted. According to previous considerations, this analysis
was limited in the range below 1 lm. Fig. 4 reports the particles
measured at 15 kW and 25 kW for different fuels. In order to obtain
more reliable results, individual size distribution functions taken at
constant load were summarized and averaged over a period of
10 min. All the concentrations are normalized at 15% of oxygen
content. The resulting distribution functions for Jet-A1 fuel show
a single mode trend, placed at 70 nm. In the first picture(top, left)
of fig. 4 the distribution of the particles size in the combustion air
is also reported for comparison. By comparing particles concentra-
tion measured in combustion air and at the turbine exhaust, it ap-
pears that particles with sizes larger than 40 nm are clearly formed
during combustion. The concentration of soot particles is equal to
4.0  104 /cm3 at 15 kW and to 2.4  104 /cm3 at 25 kW.
The addiction of 10% in volume of pure rapeseed oil to kerosene
does not influence the distribution function shape and the peak is
still placed at 70 nm. The concentration increases to 1.0  105 /cm3
and to 9.0  104 /cm3 at 15 kW and 25 kW, respectively.
By increasing vegetable oil volume fraction in the fuel blend to
20% there is no evidence of soot emissions change. Not only the
function shape, but also the absolute values remain practically
the same.
Otherwise, the addiction of sunflower oil to Jet-A1 changes in a
significant way the distribution functions. The peak of the single
mode functions shifts to Dp  120 nm and it is also noted a sensible
increasing of particle concentrations.
20 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22

Fig. 4. Particle size distributions at 15% of O2 for Jet-A1, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil blends (the scale is changed of a factor 5 in the pictures in the last two rows).
 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22
For the 10% sunflower oil blend it was detected a mean peak of
4.3  105 /cm3 at 15 kW and of 3.8  105 /cm3 at 25 kW. These val-
ues result about four times higher than those measured with rape-
seed oil blends. However, even in this case, as described before for
rapeseed oil, by increasing the vegetable oil volume fraction in the
blend to 20% there is no evidence of soot emissions change. From a
phenomenological point of view, in practice, a sort of soot emission
‘‘saturation’’ was observed.
To highlight the phenomenology it is useful to refer to the glo-
bal particulate matter (PM) emission, i.e. the representation of the
cumulative normalized soot emissions for each fuel and for each
load.
In order to obtain an accurate number concentration measure-
ment with the ELPI, the effective density of particles is required:
particles are charged according to their mobility diameter but they
are classified according to their aerodynamic diameter, so the
effective density is required to link these two properties and cor-
rectly infer the number distributions [19]. By assuming the aerody-
namic hypothesis (i.e. particles considered as spheres of density
1 g/cm3), the global PM emissions of fine and ultrafine particles
can be estimated (Fig. 5).
The reported data represent an efficient synoptic of the soot
emissions. We can reassume remarks in four points:
– soot emission is greater for lower loads;
– vegetable oil addiction increases the PM emission;
– the PM level is independent by oil concentration in fuel blends;
– the soot tendency of sunflower oil is greater than the rapeseed
oil one.
An exhaustive explanation of occurred phenomena can be de-
duct by taking account of the soot formation mechanisms and
the combustion system of the gas micro turbine.
The sooting tendency of different fuels is well characterized by
the soot yield YS, namely the fraction of the fuel carbon which is
converted to soot. If we refer to literature data [20–22], the soot
yield curves [C]soot/[C]fuel, reported as a function of temperature,
present the typical bell shape behavior. Another important param-
eter to take into account is the soot induction time si [20–22], that
represents the characteristic time of soot formation process and
gives a qualitative description of the involved kinetics.
In stationary machines such as gas turbines, all the components
are not optimized at lower loads and the overall combustion pro-
cess is inefficient. In particular, the spray formation is affected by
a worse air/fuel mixing and lower temperature conditions; the
evaporation and the oxidation of fuel droplets take place in non-
ideal conditions. Yet, the C/O ratio increasing (rich flame), at low
Fig. 5. Global PM emissions (referred @15% of oxygen).
21
loads, rises the soot yield [20], while the induction time is indepen-
dent from the C/O ratio. This explains higher soot levels in the gas
turbine exhaust stream at partial load.
Fig. 5 shows that particulate matter emissions increase when
vegetable oils are added to fossil fuel. In order to explain this
occurrence it has to be considered that soot induction time for veg-
etable oils is typically greater than fossil fuel ones [20–22.].
In these conditions, taking into account that the combustor was
optimized to work with lower si (typically of fossil fuels), the soot
inception is delayed and there is no time to complete the soot oxi-
dation process in the combustion chamber: si becomes the domi-
nant process parameter and the result is an increasing of soot
emissions at the outlet of the MGT, even if YS,vo is lower than
YS,kerosene.
From Fig. 5 it is possible to highlight another interesting point,
namely that the PM level seems to be independent by SVO concen-
tration in fuel blends. Its possible to clarify this situation by
remembering that the YS function typically presents a bell shape
behavior in function of the flame temperature. Increasing vegeta-
ble oil concentration in the fuel, the flame temperature decreases
(because of a lower SVO adiabatic flame temperature but also a
worse combustion efficiency) thus shifting the equilibrium in a re-
gion corresponding to a global reduction of soot yield, which bal-
ances the increased amount of soot sources (vegetable oil) in the
fuel.
The last point to investigate is the sunflower oil soot tendency,
that is greater than rapeseed oil one. This behavior can be related
to the different chemical composition of the two vegetable oils
and to the liquid-phase reactions which occur in combustion
chamber. As discussed before, a significant difference between
the rapeseed oil and the sunflower oil is in the fatty acid composi-
tion (Table 2): sunflower oil typically presents a higher content in
linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated acid which presents a 18-carbon
chain with two double bonds, than rapeseed oil. As widely tested
in literature [23], increasing number of double bonds leads to high-
er amounts of particulate matter. This result may be explained by
the fact that the double bonds in the molecules provide a more di-
rect path to the formation of ethene and ethyne during the thermal
decomposition of the molecules, both of which are known precur-
sors to carbonaceous soot [24].
However, the content of aromatics and olefins (unsaturated
compounds), species prone to form soot and its precursors [25–
27], in the kerosene Jet A-1 amounts to about 20% [28]. Thus, the
substitution of percentages of kerosene with rapeseed oil, that con-
tains a maximum of 27% of unsaturated compounds, should not be
significant in terms of carbonaceous emissions. But, as discussed
previously, there are other chemical and physical properties (the
induction time, boiling point, etc.) that intervene and account for
the different particulate emissions. Instead, the addition of sun-
flower oil to kerosene increases the fraction of species prone to
form particulate, being composed of about 70% of polyunsaturated
species. Thus, the differences of particulate emissions between the
SVOs can be ascribed mainly to the different chemical composition,
being the physical properties of the two oils very similar, while, in
a minor extent, also the other chemical–physical properties con-
tribute to increase the particulate emissions when compared to
fossil kerosene.
A second remark can be devoted to the profile of particulate
emissions. According to [23], the emission of particulates shows
a larger concentration of ‘‘accumulation mode particles’’ with the
increasing of double bonds in the fuel molecules. This aspect is
clearly showed in Fig. 4 where a net shift toward larger diameters
is observed for the fuel with higher double-bound concentration,
i.e., blends C and D. Schönborn et al. put in evidence also the cor-
relation between the nucleation mode particles concentration
and the boiling point of the fuel [23]. In the present study no
22 F. Chiariello et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 56 (2014) 16–22
evidence of this effect was observed. This can be explained by the
fact that kerosene, which possesses a lower boiling point than both
SVOs, was by far the major component in fuels used.
5. Conclusions
In the present work the attention was focused on the analsysis
of the pollutant emissions by a micro gas turbine fuelled by differ-
ent straight vegetable oil – fossil fuel blends.
In particular the discussion concerned the study of nitric oxide
and carbon monoxide emissions as well as particulate matter by
varying load and blends. The effect of the fuel composition on con-
centration and dimension of fine and ultrafine particulate matter is
evaluated in detail. The analysis of experimental data, regarding
the adoption of five different fuels in two different operating con-
ditions, has showed no relevant differences in the global behavior
of the microturbine, in both CO and NOx emission. On the contrary,
the study on the particulate matter data has highlighted that there
are several variations in PM emissions by varying load and blend.
In particular, the results showed that soot emission is greater at
part load and that also limited presence, 10% v/v, of a straight veg-
etable oil in blends with kerosene leads to increase in PM emis-
sions. Furthermore, PM level appears independent of SVO
concentration in fuel blends, with sunflower oil soot tendency
much greater than the rapeseed oil one.
Acknowledgment
The research was partially supported by the Italian Ministry of
Economic Development within the framework of the Program
Agreement MiSE-CNR ‘‘Ricerca di Sistema Elettrico’’.
References
[1] D. Chiaramonti, M. Prussi, Pure vegetable oil for energy and transport, Int. J. Oil,
Gas Coal Technol. 2 (2009) 186–198.
[2] A. Demirbas, Competitive liquid biofuels from biomass, Appl. Energy 88 (2011)
17–28.
[3] F. Beretta, C. Allouis, G. Martino, L. Viegas L, Combustion characteristics of
stationary sprays of vegetable oils in a pilot furnace, Final Report of the UE FP5
Project Advanced Combustion Reasearch of Vegetable Oil, FAIR-CT 95–0627,
1998.
[4] C. Allouis, F. Beretta, Combustion and emission properties of alternative liquid
and gaseous fuels, Final Report of the Ue Fp5 Project Alternative Fuels For
Industrial Gas Turbine, CT-2002-00662, 2006.
[5] M. Prussi, D. Chiaramonti, G. Riccio, F. Martelli, L. Pari, Straight vegetable oil
use in micro-gas turbines: system adaptation and testing, Appl. Energy 89
(2012) 287–295.
[6] D. Chiaramonti, A.M. Rizzo, A. Spadi, M. Prussi, G. Riccio, F. Martelli, Exhaust
emissions from liquid fuel micro gas turbine fed with diesel oil, biodiesel and
vegetable oil, Appl. Energy 101 (2013) 349–356.
[7] J.S. Lighty, J.M. Veranth, A.F. Sarofim, Combustion aerosols: factors governing
their size and compositions and implications to human health, J. Air Waste
Manag. Assoc. 50 (2000) 1565–1618.
[8] A. Elder, R. Gelein, V. Silva, T. Feikert, L. Opanashuk, J. Carter, R. Potter, A.
Maynard, Y. Ito, J. Finkelstein, G. Oberdörster, Translocation of inhaled ultrafine
manganese oxide particles to the central nervous system, Environ. Health
Perspect. 114 (2006) 1172–1178.
[9] P. Pilavachi, Mini- and micro-gas turbines for combined heat and power, Appl.
Thermal. Eng. 22 (2002) 2003–2014.
[10] C.D. Bolszo, V.G. McDonell, Emissions optimization of a biodiesel fired gas
turbine, Proc. Combust. Inst. 32 (2009) 2949–2956.
[11] D.Makaire, K. Sartor, P. Ngendakumana, The use of liquid biofuels in heating
systems: a review,in: 33rd Task Leaders Meeting of the International Energy
Agency Implementing Agreement on Energy Conservation and Emissions
Reduction in Combustion, Lund, Sweden, 07–11 August, 2011.
[12] K.K. Gupta, A. Rehman, R.M. Sarviya, Bio-fuels for the gas turbine: a review,
Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14 (2010) 2946–2955.
[13] A. Cavarzere, M. Morini, M. Pinelli, P.R. Spina, A. Vaccari, M. Venturini, Fuelling
micro gas turbines with vegetable oils Part I: Straight and blended vegetable
oil properties, Proceedings of ASME turbo expo, GT2012-68238 (2012).
[14] S.S. Sidibè, J. Blin, G. Vaitilingom, Y. Azoumah, Use of crude filtered vegetable
oil as a fuel in diesel engines state of the art: literature review, Renew. Sustain.
Energy Rev. 14 (2010) 2748–2759.
[15] O.M.I. Nwafor, G. Rice, Performance of rapeseed oil blends in a diesel engine,
Appl. Energy 54 (1996) 345–354.
[16] F. Reale, R. Calabria, F. Chiariello, R. Pagliara, P. Massoli, A micro gas turbine
fuelled by methane–hydrogen blends, Appl. Mech. Mater. 232 (2012) 792–
796.
[17] N.K. Rizk, A.H. Lefebvre, Spray characteristics of plain jet airblast atomizers, J.
Eng. Gas Turbines Power 106 (1984) 634–638.
[18] M.M. Maricq, N. Xua, R.E. Chasea, Measuring particulate mass emissions with
the electrical low pressure impactor, Aerosol Sci. Technol. 40 (2006) 68–79.
[19] M. Marjamäkia, M. Lemmettya, J. Keskinena, ELPI response and data reduction
i: response functions, Aerosol Sci. Technol. 39 (2005) 575–582.
[20] C. Beatrice, J. D’alessio, M. Lazzaro, P. Massoli, V. Moccia, Soot tendency of
rapeseed oil in high pressure conditions: comparative results from shock tube
and diesel engines experiments,in: Combustion Meeting – XXI Event of the
Italian Section of the Combustion Institute, 1998.
[21] M. Frenklach, S. Taki, M.B. Durgaprasad, R. Matula, Soot formation in shock-
tube pyrolysis of acetylene, allene and 1,3-butadiene, Combust. Flame 54
(1983) 81–101.
[22] S. Bauerle, Y. Karasevich, S.T. Slavov, D. Tanke, M. Tappe, T. Thienel, et al., Soot
formation at elevated pressures and carbon concentrations in hydrocarbon
pyrolysis, in: Proceedings of the 25th Symposium. (Int.) on Combution, 1994,
pp. 627–634.
[23] A. Schönborn, N. Ladommatos, J. Williams, R. Allan, J. Rogerson, The influence
of molecular structure of fatty acid monoalkyl esters on diesel combustion,
Combust. Flame 156 (2009) 1396–1412.
[24] R.A. Dobbins, R.A. Fletcher, H.-C. Chang, The evolution of soot precursor
particles and carbonaceous soot, Combust. Flame 115 (1998) 285–298.
[25] H. Richter, J.B. Howard, Formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and
their growth to soot – a review of chemical reaction pathways, Prog. Energy
Combust. Sci. 26 (2000) 565–608.
[26] M. Frenklach, D. Clary, W.C. Gardiner, S.E. Stein, Detailed kinetic modeling of
soot formation in shock-tube pyrolysis of acetylene, in: 20th Symposium (Int.)
on Combustion, (1984) 887–901.
[27] A. Violi, A. D’Anna, A. D’Alessio, Modeling of particulate formation in
combustion and pyrolysis, Chem. Eng. Sci. 54 (1999) 3433–3442.
[28] P. Dagaut, M. Cathonnet, The ignition, oxidation, and combustion of kerosene:
a review of experimental and kinetic modelling, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 32
(2006) 48–92.