Measurement of the thermal conductivity of biofuel mixtures: Methyl caprate components of biodiesel and alcohols

Biodiesel is considered a feasible replacement for fossil fuels. Alcohols are alternative biofuels, while also playing a role as additives to improve certain properties of diesel and biodiesel. In this work, the thermal conductivity in the liquid phase of binary mixtures of methyl caprate, usually the significant biodiesel component with three higher alcohols (1-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-pentanol), was measured, with the temperature ranging from 287 K to 358 K at atmospheric pressure. The total standard uncertainty of the experimental results was estimated at less than 2% and the repeatability was better than ±0.5%. In addition, three correlations for estimating the thermal conductivity of mixtures were fitted and improved, with the average absolute relative deviation of the three correlations less than 0.30%.