Formulation of Sasol IPK Surrogate Fuel for Diesel Engine Application Using an Ignition Quality Tester (IQT)

This paper presents an approach to develop Sasol IPK (Iso-Paraffinic Kerosene) surrogate fuels for diesel engine application using Ignition Quality Tester (IQT). The methodology includes: 1) in-house developed MATLAB code to formulate the appropriate mixture blends, 2) Aspen HYSYS to develop the distillation curve and compares it to the target Sasol IPK fuel, 3) IQT to measure the derived cetane number (DCN) of surrogate fuels and compare it with the target Sasol IPK fuel, 4) analysis of autoignition and combustion characteristics for Sasol IPK surrogate fuels. The ignition delay, combustion gas pressure, and rate of heat release of Sasol IPK and its formulated surrogate fuel are analyzed and compared at five different charge temperatures. Furthermore, the apparent activation energies derived from chemical ignition delay of the surrogate fuel and Sasol IPK are determined and compared.