Natural resins and their application in antifouling fuel technology: Part I: Improving the physicochemical properties of diesel fuel using natural resin polymer as a removable additive

A simple method is proposed for the improvement of diesel fuel properties without the addition of surfactants, chemicals or other pollutants components. Natural resin, a natural product from Pinus halepensis trees was used in order to remove water residues from diesel fuels. A simple but highly effective method was used in order to improve the physicochemical properties of commercial diesel fuels. The main idea is based on the property of the resin to adsorb water, especially when the water amount is dissolved into hydrocarbon fluids. This phenomenon was investigated as a resin concentration effecting into diesel fuel samples as well as a process of the mixing time. To this end different mass of resin was mixed with diesel fuel and after several times of blending process the main physicochemical properties were measured and compared with those of the raw diesel fuel. Specifically, the density, the kinematic viscosity, the conductivity, the humidity, the flash point and the heat of combustion were measured according to the ASTM standard protocols. This water removal improved the physicochemical properties of diesel fuel, up to 633 J/g for the heat of combustion, 69% for humidity and up to 74% for conductivity. In addition the humidity adsorption phenomenon was confirmable by water adsorption isotherm at 293 K as well as by using independent techniques such as FTIR, DSC and TGA. Overall, the proposed method can be used in a simple fuel cleaning process.