The frequency-dependent absorption characteristics of conventional diesel fuel have been researched in the spectral range of 0.2–1.5?THz by the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The absorption coefficient increased monotonically with the solidifying point of diesel. A nonlinear regression model was established, and the cold flow properties of fuel were presented quantitatively. The results made the solidifying point prediction possible by THz-TDS technology and indicated the bright future in practical application. 1. Introduction Diesel fuel is one of the commercial and industrial fuels, produced by refining crude oil. Because of being heavier and having more carbon content, diesels have some problems when being used in an engine. One of the important problems is a high freezing point that causes block age of filters, and hence, there are some difficulties when they are used in cold conditions. Solidifying point (SP), by which diesel has been classified as different grades of 0#, ?10#, and ?20#, is the highest temperature of diesel loses fluidity in engine, determined on the BSN(S)-4 solid point instruments according to GB/T510-83 [1]. SP is one of the key indicators ensuring the performance of diesel at low temperature, and it should be measured and controlled precisely in practical applications. However, the traditional method for SP has recognized that the test suffered from many disadvantages, some of which include a relatively large fuel sample volume requirement, significant time consumption, and a relatively high reproducibility error. For this reason, there have been many attempts to develop methods to estimate the indexes economically, rapidly, and effectively [2–4]. Serious applications in organism analysis have been proposed in the literature demonstrating that terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is an achievable method to detect the diesels via chemical analysis [5–7]. In this work, THz-TDS has been used to investigate the cold flow properties of diesel due to the reason that most terahertz spectrum contains rich physical, chemical, and structural information of the organism, and low-frequency vibrational and rotational spectra of organism are responsible for the cold properties and lie in terahertz frequency range. The results demonstrated the possibility of SP prediction of diesel by THz-TDS. 2. Experimental A repetition rate of 80?MHz, diode-pump mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser (MaiTai, Spectra Physics) provided the femtosecond pulses with duration of 100 fs and center wavelength of 810?nm [8, 9]. A p-type InAs wafer
References
[1]
S. Han, Y. Song, and T. Ren, “Impact of alkyl methacrylate-maleic anhydride copolymers as pour point depressant on crystallization behavior of diesel fuel,” Energy and Fuels, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 2576–2580, 2009.
[2]
N. Pasadakis, S. Sourligas, and C. Foteinopoulos, “Prediction of the distillation profile and cold properties of diesel fuels using mid-IR spectroscopy and neural networks,” Fuel, vol. 85, no. 7-8, pp. 1131–1137, 2006.
[3]
C. Pasquini and A. F. Bueno, “Characterization of petroleum using near-infrared spectroscopy: quantitative modeling for the true boiling point curve and specific gravity,” Fuel, vol. 86, no. 12-13, pp. 1927–1934, 2007.
[4]
D. J. Cookson, P. Iliopoulos, and B. E. Smith, “Composition-property relations for jet and diesel fuels of variable boiling range,” Fuel, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 70–78, 1995.
[5]
H. Wang and G. Zhao, “Study on the THz spectra of four kinds of Nipagin esters,” Chinese Optics Letters, vol. 9, no. 1, supplement, Article ID S10503, 2011.
[6]
Y. Ueno, R. Rungsawang, I. Tomita, and K. Ajito, “Quantitative measurements of amino acids by terahertz time-domain transmission spectroscopy,” Analytical Chemistry, vol. 78, no. 15, pp. 5424–5428, 2006.
[7]
Y. C. Shen, T. Lo, P. F. Taday, B. E. Cole, W. R. Tribe, and M. C. Kemp, “Detection and identification of explosives using terahertz pulsed spectroscopic imaging,” Applied Physics Letters, vol. 86, no. 24, Article ID 241116, pp. 1–3, 2005.
[8]
J. S. Li and X. J. Li, “Determination principal component content of seed oils by THz-TDS,” Chemical Physics Letters, vol. 476, no. 1–3, pp. 92–96, 2009.
[9]
X. Li, Z. Hong, J. He, and Y. Chen, “Precisely optical material parameter determination by time domain waveform rebuilding with THz time-domain spectroscopy,” Optics Communications, vol. 283, no. 23, pp. 4701–4706, 2010.
[10]
Y. Hu, X. H. Wang, L. T. Guo, C. L. Zhang, H. B. Liu, and X. C. Zhang, “Absorption and dispersion of vegetable oil and animal fat in THz range,” Acta Physica Sinica, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 4124–4128, 2005.
[11]
M. Del Carmen García, M. Orea, L. Carbognani, and A. Urbina, “The effect of paraffinic fractions on crude oil wax crystallization,” Petroleum Science and Technology, vol. 19, no. 1-2, pp. 189–196, 2001.
[12]
D. W. Jennings and J. Breitigam, “Paraffin inhibitor formulations for different application environments: from heated injection in the desert to extreme cold arctic temperatures,” Energy and Fuels, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 2337–2349, 2010.
[13]
Z. Y. Zhang, T. Ji, X. H. Yu, T. Q. Xiao, and H. J. Xu, “A method for quantitative analysis of chemical mixtures with THz time domain spectroscopy,” Chinese Physics Letters, vol. 23, no. 8, article 076, pp. 2239–2242, 2006.
[14]
L. I. Jiusheng, “Optical parameters of vegetable oil studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy,” Applied Spectroscopy, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 231–234, 2010.
[15]
A. L. C. Machado, E. F. Lucas, and G. González, “Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) as wax inhibitor of a Brazilian crude oil: oil viscosity, pour point and phase behavior of organic solutions,” Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, vol. 32, no. 2–4, pp. 159–165, 2001.
[16]
R. A. Soldi, A. R. S. Oliveira, R. V. Barbosa, and M. A. F. César-Oliveira, “Polymethacrylates: pour point depressants in diesel oil,” European Polymer Journal, vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 3671–3678, 2007.
[17]
Y. Song, T. Ren, X. Fu, and X. Xu, “Study on the relationship between the structure and activities of alkyl methacrylate-maleic anhydride polymers as cold flow improvers in diesel fuels,” Fuel Processing Technology, vol. 86, no. 6, pp. 641–650, 2005.
[18]
P. Ghosh and S. B. Jaffe, “Detailed composition-based model for predicting the cetane number of diesel fuels,” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 346–351, 2006.
[19]
B. Creton, C. Dartiguelongue, T. De Bruin, and H. Toulhoat, “Prediction of the cetane number of diesel compounds using the quantitative structure property relationship,” Energy and Fuels, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 5396–5403, 2010.