Thermal-Oxidative Stability of Automotive Diesel Fuels.
Abstract:
Fuel-oriented problems occurring in the field prompted an investigation to examine the thermal-oxidation characteristics of diesel fuels. Because of the absence of any laboratory bench-scale techniques designed to predict these fuel filter plugging andor injector fouling tendencies, initial experimentation was directed towards developing an accelerated thermal-oxidation technique. To establish valid test conditions actual diesel fuel system temperatures were obtained from Engineering and Service E and S test programs and also monitored under road dynamometer testing. A second attempt involved the use of an ASTM-CRC Fuel Coker which was operated in a recycle mode to simulate the geometry of automotive diesel fuel systems. Initial experiments with this technique have revealed its capability to differentiate diesel fuel quality in terms of thermal-oxidation stability. Author