Evaporation characteristics of acetone–butanol–ethanol and diesel blends droplets at high ambient temperatures

• Evaporation characteristics of acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) and diesel blends.
• Droplet lifetime of ABE is shorter than that of diesel at all test conditions.
• Droplet evaporation process of ABE–diesel blends varies with ambient temperature.
• For ABE–diesel droplets, bubble formation and rupture are seen at high temperatures.

In order to decrease the production cost of butanol, acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) as the intermediate product of butanol production has drawn increased attention recently because of its possibility to be a renewable fuel. In this study, the evaporation characteristics of ABE and diesel blends droplets have been investigated experimentally through droplet suspension technique at different ambient temperatures (423–823 K) under normal gravity and atmospheric pressure. The results show that the droplet lifetime of ABE is always shorter compared to diesel. However, the difference in droplet lifetime between ABE and diesel decreases with increasing ambient temperature. The ABE–diesel blends also evaporate faster than diesel. The droplet evaporation characteristics of ABE–diesel blends vary with ambient temperature. At high temperature, the droplets exhibit the expansion and shrinkage phenomena due to bubble formation and rupture. Thus the droplet evaporation shows the three-phase evaporation characteristics. The bubble formation and rupture are strengthened at higher temperature. Strong puffing is observed during the ABE–diesel blends evaporation process at 823 K.