Oxidation stability of biodiesel is an important issue because FA derivatives are more sensitive to oxidative degradation than mineral fuel. Therefore, in the most recent European Specifications for biodiesel, a minimum value of 6 h for the induction period at 110°C, measured with a Rancimat instrument, is specified. To guarantee this value at the filling station, the use of additional antioxidants will be necessary. In this paper we show the influence of different synthetic and natural antioxidants on the oxidation stability, using the specified test method. Biodiesel produced from rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, used frying oil, and beef tallow, both undistilled and distilled, was investigated. The four synthetic antioxidants pyrogallol (PY), propylgallate (PG), TBHQ, and BHA produced the greatest enhancement of the induction period. These four compounds and the widely used BHT were selected for further studies at concentrations from 100 to 1000 mg/kg. The induction periods of methyl esters from rapeseed oil, used frying oil, and tallow could be improved significantly with PY, PG, and TBHQ, whereas BHT was not very effective. A good correlation was found between the improvement of the oxidation stability and the FA composition.

The potential of 11 different synthetic phenolic antioxidants to improve the oxidation stability of biodiesel prepared from different feedstocks was investigated. Measurements of oxidation stability were carried out according to the European biodiesel specifications with a Rancimat instrument at 110 7C. At antioxidant concentrations of 1000 mg/kg, an improvement in oxidation stability could be achieved with all antioxidants tested. Especially the antioxidants DTBHQ, IONOX 220, Vulkanox ZKF, Vulkanox BKF, and Baynox were able to significantly improve the oxidation stability, leading to stabilization factors between 1.89 and 13.07. Variation of antioxidant concentrations between 100 and 1000 mg/kg showed that the efficiency of the antioxidants varied depending on the different types of biodiesel. When used as additives, Baynox showed good effects on rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) stability, DBHQ on recycled cooking oil methyl ester (RCOME) stability, Vulkanox BKF on distilled RCOME (DRCOME) stability, and IONOX 220 on tallow methyl ester (TME) stability. Evaluation of the influence of the antioxidants on critical biodiesel fuel parameters showed no negative impacts on viscosities, densities, carbon residues, CFPP, and sulphated ash contents of the different biodiesel samples. However, in terms of acid values, a noticeable increase could be observed at antioxidant levels of 1000 mg/kg. At lower antioxidant concentrations, this increase was much lower and the values remained within the required limits.

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