Understanding Environmental Stress Cracking of Polyethylene by Biodiesel Fuel

生物燃料在交通运输行业的兴起提高了能源安全，延长了石油资源的寿命。生物柴油是由动物或植物脂肪酸衍生物合成的，生产的燃料与标准柴油燃料具有很大不同的流动和能量特性。然而，在以汽油为基础的系统中引入替代燃料往往不是没有挑战的。该行业正在努力解决船舶油箱和农业养殖设备在过渡到替代燃料后迅速失效的问题。对生物燃料与这些燃料箱中通常使用的聚合物（聚乙烯和聚酰胺）的广泛相容性研究表明，几乎没有证据表明化学或微生物手段会造成降解性损害。然而，申请人小组最近的研究表明，生物柴油燃料可能是一种环境应力裂解剂，这意味着它影响聚合物链的组织，而不是直接攻击它们。该提案旨在了解生物柴油与聚乙烯相互作用的过程，因为燃料似乎对不同等级聚乙烯的影响不同于更常见的作为应力裂解剂的洗涤剂。这项为期两年的研究将检查生物柴油进入不同等级聚乙烯的情况，并利用机械、光谱、x射线和声学技术描述其组织变化。这项工作将培养硕士和博士水平的HQP在实验和分析技能，以及发展沟通和领导技能。这项工作的成果将转移到聚合物工业，以指导油箱的配方改进，使其更能抵抗生物柴油。这项研究将有利于加拿大树脂供应商和储罐和管道制造商，减少他们对产品故障的责任。这项工作将进一步使加拿大生物柴油供应商受益，最近由于油箱莫名其妙的故障，特别是在海洋部门，加拿大生物柴油供应商的市场有所萎缩

The rise of biofuels in the transportation industry has provided increased energy security and furthered the longevity of petroleum resources. Biodiesel is synthesized from animal or plant fatty acid derivatives, producing a fuel with much different flow and energy properties to standard diesel fuel. Introducing alternative fuels into a petrol-based systems, however, is often not achieved without challenges. The industry is grappling with fuel tanks in marine vessels and agricultural farming equipment which are failing quickly after transitioning to the alternative fuel. Extensive compatibility studies of biofuel with the polymers typically used in these fuel tanks, polyethylene and polyamide, have shown little evidence of degradative damage by chemical or microbial means. However, recent research within the group of the applicant is suggesting that biodiesel fuel may be an environmental stress cracking agent, which means it affects the organization of polymer chains rather than attacks them directly. This proposal seeks to understand the process by which biodiesel interacts with polyethylene, as the fuel seems to influence different grades of polyethylene differently from the more commonly studied detergents as stress cracking agents. The two year study will examine the ingress of biodiesel into different grades of polyethylene and characterize the organizational changes using mechanical, spectroscopic, X-ray, and acoustic techniques. The work will train a Masters and Doctoral level HQP in experimental and analysis skills, as well as develop communications and leadership skills. The outcome of the work will be transferred to the polymer industry to guide formulation improvements in fuel tanks such that they are more resistant to biodiesel. The research will benefit Canadian resin suppliers and tank & piping manufacturers, by reducing their liability to product failures. The work will further benefit the Canadian suppliers of biodiesel, which have seen some retraction of their markets recently due to inexplicable failures of tanks, especially in the marine sector.**