Oxidative stability of blended sunflower and castor biodiesel by Rancimat and static mode P-DSC

ABSTRACT

Biodiesel is composed of saturated and unsaturated long chain fatty acid alkyl esters. Due to these unsaturated compounds, there is a susceptibility to the autoxidation process. Castor biodiesel has excellent thermal and oxidative stabilities due to its chemical composition. Blends of sunflower and castor were obtained in the ratios 20, 40, 60 and 80% m/m with the intention to study the effect of the addition of castor biodiesel on the induction period of sunflower biodiesel of low oxidative stability, employing the Rancimat method (EN 14112) and P-DSC isothermal mode. The above mentioned blend containing 40% of castor biodiesel in sunflower biodiesel meets the specification of oxidative stability (6 hours). Furthermore, it was observed that the addition of castor biodiesel is interesting, since it improves the resistance to the oxidation of sunflower. The results obtained by Rancimat and P-DSC were consistent with respect to the analysis of biodiesel blends, indicating that the use of P-DSC technique to study the oxidative stability is quite promising.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiesel
• alternate fuels
• oxidation
• calorimeter

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support granted by Federal Brazilian agencies: CAPES and the Post-Graduate Program of Materials Science and Engineering of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) for assistance with the analyses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thiago Chellappa

Thiago Chellappa is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Has a Doctorate degree from the same University and a Post-Doctoral fellowship from Boston University. His research interests include Environmental Engineering and Applied Catalysis.

José G.D.S. Santa Rosa

José G.D.S. Santa Rosa da Silva Santa Rosa is currently an Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Has a Doctorate degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

Dino L. F. Santos

Dino L. F. Santos is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte.  Has a Doctorate degree from the Universidade Federal do Pernambuco. His research interests include Environmental Engineering and Aerospacial Engineering.

Rodrigo N. Boufleur

Rodrigo N. Boufleur is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Has a Doctorate degree from the Universidade de São Paulo.

Isadora V.D.L. Paiva

Isadora V.D.L. Paiva is an undergraduate student at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte.

Tom Lèger

Tom Lèger is a Doctorate student at the École Polytechnique de L`Université de Nantes.

Naithirithi T. Chellappa

Naithirithi T. Chellappa is an Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Has a Doctorate degree from the University of Madras in 1973 and a Post-Doctoral fellowship from Glasgow University in 1988. His research interests include Environmental Engineering.

Rubens M. Nascimento

Rubens M. Nascimento is an Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. Has a Doctorate degree from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina with a brief P.hD. Scholar Fellowship at RWTH-Aachen in Germany in 2001. His research interests include Environmental Engineering, Applied Catalysis and Materials Science Engineering.