Measurement and modeling of thermal conductivity for short chain methyl esters: methyl butyrate and methyl caproate

Abstract Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) are the main component of biodiesels. Before the industrial application of FAMEs, it is essential to investigate the thermophysical properties of FAMEs. Thermal conductivity of fuels is used in various processes, such as the design of the heat transfer system and the determination of the temperature distribution of engines. Thus, it is of great significance to acquire accurate experimental data and develop reliable models for obtaining accurate thermal conductivity data of FAMEs. In this work, thermal conductivities of two short-chain FAMEs, methyl butyrate (MeC4:0) and methyl caproate (MeC6:0) were studied experimentally and theoretically. The thermal conductivities of these two FAMEs were measured by the transient hot-wire method at T = 303 to 523 K and p = 0.1 MPa to 15 MPa, the data were correlated as a polynomial function of temperature and pressure, the AADs are 0.38 % for MeC4:0 and 0.42 % for MeC6:0, respectively. Moreover, the experimental thermal conductivities agree well with the available data from literature. In addition, three classical models (Latini model, Sastri model, Liu model) were used to represent the present experimental data and the results show that Liu model with re-fitted parameters performs better in the prediction of the thermal conductivity of FAMEs, with regard to accuracy.