Degradation study of engine polymeric components using soybean biodiesel

An engine industry from Caxias do Sul city (RS, Brazil) has developed tests with biofuels to adapt their products to new fuel trends. Thus, this study aims to examine the components of their engines with potential degradation in the biodiesel usage. The most important aspects that were studied include fuel hoses, sealing rings and painting degradation. This work evaluated polymeric materials in terms of the direct contact with biodiesel from soybean in different proposed compositions with diesel fuel and compared the currently used materials with other elastomers that were proposed by the manufacturers of these components to choose the best performance for this application. The paint performance was also verified to evaluate the resistance aspects to fuels and to compare them to the proposed improvements to these engines. The results indicate that it is possible to use the proposed fuel hoses and sealing rings for some applications in specific biodiesel ratios. Additionally, the blistering and adhesion tests appear to be satisfactory for some of the studied systems.