This report must be reproduced in full,unless SwRI approves a summary or abridgement. iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Stability Chemistry FundamentalsChemical reactivity of fatty oils and esters can be divided into oxidative and thermal instability. Both of these types of instability are determined by the amount and configuration of the olefinic unsaturation on the fatty acid chains. Many of the plant-derived fatty oils, including soy and rapeseed, contain polyunsaturated fatty acid chains that are methylene-interrupted rather than conjugated. This structural fact is key to understanding both oxidative and thermal instability.In oxidative instability, the methylene carbons between the olefinic carbons are the sites of first attack. After hydrogen is removed from such carbons oxygen rapidly attacks and a hydroperoxide is ultimately formed where the polyunsaturation has been isomerized to include a conjugated diene. This reaction is a chain mechanism that can proceed rapidly once an initial induction period has occurred. The greater the level of unsaturation in a fatty oil or ester, the more susceptible it will be to oxidation. Once the hydroperoxides have formed, they decompose and inter-react to form numerous secondary oxidation products including aldehydes, alcohols, shorter chain carboxylic acids, and higher molecular weight oligomers often called polymers. Another polymerization mechanism, vinyl polymerization, has been proposed as being part of the degradation process of fatty oils and esters. However, conventional understanding of oxidation chemistry would imply that such processes would not be significant when oxygen was abundant, so its precise level of importance has not been determined.Metals, free fatty acids, acidic fuel additives, the size of the alcohol group (for mono-esters), and the presence of natural antioxidants can all impact the oxidative stability of fatty oils and/or esters. Oxidation can also be catalyzed by light, but such photo-oxidation should not be a significant factor for the manufacture and transportation of biodiesel fuel.Thermal polymerization of fatty oils and esters does not become important until temperatures of 250-300°C are reached. This is because the methylene-interrupted polyunsaturated structure cannot participate in such reactions until it isomerizes into a conjugated configuration, and such isomerization will not occur until that temperature range is reached. Thermal polymerization occurs by the Diels Alder reaction, and two fatty acid chains are linked by a cyclohexene ring. Higher order oligomers are also possible, although the exact mechanism is still not established. Certain thermal polymerization products in used cooking oils may carry over to non-distilled biodiesel. The verification of such compounds and their impact on fuel quality has not been determined. Thermal polymerization may be of limited importance in biodiesel fuel that is repeatedly heated by the engine and recycled to the fuel tank before actual combustion. However, thermal polymerization will not impact stor...