Using fossil fuels in engines has caused energy shortages, carbon emissions and environmental pollution. Methanol is considered as an alternative carbon-neutral fuel and energy carrier in the future, but it is hard to be used in diesel engines due to its awful auto-ignition property and low heating value. Blending methanol with vegetable oil can solve the above challenges. Palm oil (PO) ranks first in the total global vegetable oil production. Therefore, in the current study, a new method of preparing PO or palm kernel oil (PKO) with methanol was first proposed. Meantime, the microscope observation, conductivity measurement and other analysis on physico-chemical properties have been conducted. Results show that both methanol and PO/PKO can form stable microemulsion as tetrahydrofuran (THF), polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether (PODE) and butanol were selected as co-solvents, furthermore THF has the strongest solubilizing ability among the three co-solvents. PKO has a stronger affinity for methanol than PO. The electrical conductivity verified the structure and stability of the microemulsion. Copper, polypropylene, polyethylene and fluororubber are resistant to corrosion and swelling of blended fuels. This work provides valuable methods on preparing carbon-neutral fuel in diesel engines.

在发动机中使用化石燃料造成了能源短缺、碳排放和环境污染。甲醇被认为是未来可替代的碳中性燃料和能源载体，但由于其自燃性差、热值低，难以用于柴油发动机。将甲醇与植物油混合可以解决上述挑战。棕榈油（PO）在全球植物油总产量中排名第一。因此，在目前的研究中，首次提出了一种用甲醇制备 PO 或棕榈仁油 (PKO) 的新方法。同时进行了显微镜观察、电导率测量等理化性质分析。结果表明，甲醇和 PO/PKO 均可形成稳定的微乳液，如四氢呋喃 (THF)，选择聚甲醛二甲醚（PODE）和丁醇作为共溶剂，并且在三种共溶剂中THF的增溶能力最强。PKO 对甲醇的亲和力比 PO 强。电导率验证了微乳液的结构和稳定性。铜、聚丙烯、聚乙烯和氟橡胶可抵抗混合燃料的腐蚀和膨胀。这项工作为在柴油发动机中制备碳中性燃料提供了有价值的方法。