Swelling Degree and Diffusion Parameters of Poly (Sodium Acrylate-Co-Acrylamide) Hydrogel for Removal of Water Content From Biodiesel

Hydrogels particles swell in the presence of an adequate solvent and soak the solvent into the cross-linked matrix of the particle, therefore they have great potential to remove soluble and insoluble water from liquid fuels, such as biodiesel, diesel and blends. In this paper, kinetic parameters and hydrophilic properties of polyacrylamide and poly(sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide) (AAm-co-SA) hydrogels were investigated to provide data for future equipment designs and devices that use these materials in removing water from Biodiesel. New hydrogels synthesized with sodium acrylate and acrylamide obtained a swelling ratio (weight of the swollen sample to that of the dry sample) of W8=108.8 g water/g hydrogel, much higher than hydrogels developed in previous research (W8=14.36 g/g) to remove water from biodiesel. Preliminary tests with the new hydrogel developed showed its ability to reduce water content from biodiesel.