Biodiesel production and researching the effect of the additive materials on the fuel characteristics

In this study, biodiesel was obtained with the blend of sunflower oil-palm oil by transesterification method and effects of DND (freezing point depressant), BHT (oxidation stability regulator) and Winflow M-05 (cold filter plugging point depressant) which are organic additive materials and are used as commercial, were researched on fuel characteristics. 60±2 ºC reaction temperature, 30% of methanol/oil mass rate and 1 hour reaction process were determined as reaction conditionals at producing biodiesel by catalysing NaOH. In addition, for making comparison in experiments, effects of BHT and Winflow M-05 on biodiesel which was obtained with the blend of canola oil-soybean oil were researched and it was obtained better results than sunflower oil-palm oil biodiesel. In the experimental study, it was fixed that the pour point of sunflower oil-palm oil biodiesel which contains in 0,15% of DND additive material mass rate decreased to -27 ºC. Moreover, DND additive material did not change the viscosity and the flash point of biodiesel too much, but it was determined that it increased the oxidation stability of biodiesel from 1 hour to 3,2 hours. While BHT increased the oxidation stability of sunflower oil-palm oil biodiesel from 1 hour to 5 hours, it increased the oxidation stability of canola oil-soybean oil biodiesel from 6,2 hours to 10,01 hours. It wasn?t seen that additive materials (DND and Winflow M-05) had an improving effect on the cold filter plugging point for sunflower oil-palm oil biodiesel. But Winflow M-05 decreased the cold filter plugging point of canola oil-soybean oil biodiesel from -15 ºC to -20 ºC. Key Words : Biodiesel, additive materials, alternative energy resources