Wax anti-settling additives (WASA) are used to mitigate against the problems caused by the settling of n-alkane wax crystals, which crystallise from petroleum diesel. This can result in the blocking of fuel filters and hence vehicle failure. However, the mode of action for such additives is not currently known and two mechanisms have been proposed: they reduce the wax crystal size to such an extent that they settle very slowly; or they induce gelation in the wax suspension. This project aims to elucidate the mechanism of WASA within the diesel system. A room temperature crystallising model diesel (10 wt% n-alkanes in dodecane) has been developed. This model system has given a good response to the additives, with the wax crystals reduced in size, and is hence suitable for mechanistic studies. Differential scanning calorimetry and infra-red spectroscopy both suggest that the WASA is incorporated in or onto the wax crystal. DSC shows that small amounts of WASA suppress the wax crystallisation temperature and change the shape of the heat flow curve. FT-IR shows the WASA amide stretch present within filtered and dried wax crystals. Intriguingly, electrophoresis experiments show that the WASA imparts a positive charge to the wax crystals, suggesting an electrostatic role in the WASA action. Rheological experiments show the presence of a weak gel in the WASA doped model diesel. However, the gel strength is not altered by the presence of an organic salt and thus cannot be purely electrostatic in origin. Small angle neutron scattering has been conducted to help locate the WASA in the system. It has shown that in solution WASA shows a collapsed polymer coil structure with a single molecule occupying a 28 Å diameter sphere and multiple WASA molecules forming a 2400 Å diameter sphere. In the presence of the wax the WASA scatter does not significantly change suggesting that the WASA is on the surface of the wax crystal. By combining these results, a mechanism of WASA action is proposed as WASA cations interactions bridging between the wax crystals causing a weak bridging flocculation gel with electrostatic and steric effects contributing to stabilisation. The WASA charges are partially dissociated thus giving the electrophoretic effect and the long chains on the cations can contribute to stability via steric stabilisation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:763779 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Starkie, Joanna Rachel |
| Contributors | Routh, Alexander |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284911 |
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