Formate Esters Containing Biodiesel - Diesel Mixed Fuels

The blends of varying proportions of biodiesel (FAME) containing formate esters of glycerol and 93.0 wt.% fatty acid methyl esters, obtained in an interesterification reaction with methyl formate without further purification, and winter diesel fuel, were prepared, analyzed and compared with winter diesel fuel. The obtained results showed that blends comprising up to 20 vol.% of FAME fulfill the requirements of the standard LVS EN 590 concerning such characteristics as cold flow properties, viscosity, density, and carbon residue. The increase of FAME content worsens the cold flow properties; however, the mixed fuel with 20 vol.% or lower FAME content, according to the cloud point and cold filter plugging point values, remains in the same severe climate "Class 0" group as winter fuel. The carbon residue of mixed fuels raises with increasing FAME content, but stay low and do not exceed the limits of standard for mixtures with FAME percentage up to 20 vol.%. The comparison of mixed fuels containing 20 vol.% of FAME and the same amount of neat biodiesel (99.6 wt.% of fatty acid methyl esters) shows that the difference is negligible. The obtained results have indicated a good potential of FAME obtained in the interesterification reaction with methyl formate without further purification as a diesel fuel additive for up to 20 vol.%.

Physicochemical Properties Enhancement of Biodiesel Synthesis from Various Feedstocks of Waste/Residential Vegetable Oils and Palm Oil

The main aim of the present study was to improve the oxidation stability and cold flow properties of biodiesel produced from waste frying/cooking oil and palm oil. In this work, waste frying/cooking methyl ester (WFME) and palm methyl ester (PME) were prepared using an alkali-catalyzed transesterification process, and the physicochemical properties of the pure biodiesel as well as of binary blends among them were investigated. The results indicated that palm biodiesel and WFME18, produced from a mixture of frying, cooking, sunflower, and corn oils, can be used as antioxidant additives, enhancing biodiesel stability. Additionally, it was found that WFME1 and WFME12 derived from waste residential canola oil can be used as cold flow improvers for enhancing the cold flow properties of palm biodiesel. Moreover, ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel winter (ULSDFW), ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel summer (ULSDFS), kerosene (KF), and benzene (BF) were utilized to enhance the cold flow properties of the samples and meet the requirements of diesel fuel standards. The investigation of the experimental results indicated that blending WFME-PM with a low proportion of petroleum-based fuel (KF and BF) could significantly improve the cold flow properties (CP and PP) as well as oxidation stability of WFME.

Optimization of Cold Flow Properties of Biodiesel by Addition of Cold Flow Improver

Despite the renewable and sustainable characteristics, biodiesel is poor in cold flow property (CFP) which causes a significant drawback that have limited its application. Thickening or crystallization of biodiesel in low temperature can readily result in the clogging of fuel pipes and fuel filters. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimum properties of blended biodiesel that gives the most accurate simulation results of blended biodiesel’s CFP. TmoleX18 and COSMOthermX were used to identify the viscosities and densities of pure palm oil biodiesel and pure ethanol under different temperatures. The densities, viscosities and pour points of ethanol blended biodiesel was then calculated by using Grunberg-Nissan and, Riazi and Daubert equations. The simulation results were obtained under different compositions of ethanol added from 0 to 0.2 mole fraction at temperature range of 30 °C to -5 °C. The optimum combination of viscosities and densities of blended biodiesel for the blended cold flow properties was at 10 °C and 30 °C respectively. The simulation error at 0.1 mole fraction of ethanol was 0.92 %.