A group contribution method to predict the thermal conductivity of fatty acid methyl esters and fatty acid ethyl esters components of biodiesel

Recently, biodiesel is considered as a potential alternative fuel in internal combustion engines, because of their beneficial effects on pollution emission and engine performance. In this work, a group contribution method (GCM) to predict the thermal conductivity of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) components of biodiesel as a function of the temperature (290 K to 350 K) is presented. Nearly 120 experimental thermal conductivity data points at different temperatures compiled for nine esters (methyl hexanoate, methyl octanoate, methyl pelargonate, methyl decanoate, ethyl valerate, ethyl valerate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl octanoate, ethyl decanoate) were used for presenting and optimizing the formula. Additionaly, 51 experimental data points compiled for four esters (methyl myristate, methyl laurate, ethyl myristate and ethyl laurate) were employed to validate the model parameters, and the maximum and average absolute deviation are 0.61% and 1.97%. It is evident that the new proposed GCM models to predict the thermal conductivity of FAMEs and FAEEs are with high accuracy.