Biodiesel: a look into testing and quality standards

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel produced using triglycerides found in waste cooking oil. California State University Sacramento has partnered with on campus eateries to collect and convert their waste oil into usable biodiesel. Before the converted fuel can be sold it must meet ASTM D6751 quality standards for biodiesel fuels. The specific standards focused on in this study pertain to flashpoint and cloud point. The conversion process reacts potassium hydroxide as a lye and methanol as a catalyst with a triglyceride. After processing the biofuel can have high levels of methanol that directly relates to a lowered flash point. A maximum of 0.2% methanol in biodiesel correlates to a minimum flash point of 130°C. The methanol content remaining in the biodiesel was analyzed using Gas Chromatography analysis method. One of the samples contained 0.1119% methanol, which is below the ASTM specification. Another experiment was developed to test the cloud point of biodiesel. The cloud point was found to be -0.93°C by averaging three tested samples.