Influence of Purification by Distillation Treatment of Biodiesel Fuel on Fuel Quality

Abstract

This paper describes the influence of distillation treatment of biodiesel fuel on fuel qualities. The distillation treatment may be used to purify crude biodiesel fuel. In this case, it is forecasted that glycerolysis reaction between fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and residual glycerin occurs at high temperature on distillation process, glycerides; mono-, di-, and tri- will be produced and these will be fractionated with FAME. And the distillation at high temperature may reduce oxidation stability of fuel, because of oxidization of FAME and elimination of natural antioxidant. In this study, the kinetic investigation by glycerolysis reaction modeling and the experimental investigation by distillation treatment for both crude and refined biodiesels were achieved.