Vegetable oils cold flow properties

Fatty acid stmcture (composition and imsaturation degree) of vegetable oils used as feedstocks considerably affect the physical properties of biodiesel such as viscosity, cold flow properties, oxidation stability and exhaust emission profile (Knothe 2008). Even, there are many successful attempts to predict the biodiesel properties from the fatty acid composition of the plant oils. Fatty acid distribution of some common vegetable oils is given in Table 2. Higher saturated fatty acid based biodiesel has higher viscosity, cold flow temperatures, oxidation stability and calorific value while higher imsaturated fatty acid based biodiesel shows a combination of improved fuel properties as a whole (Knothe 2005 Ramos 2009 Kumar 2013). 

SCO derived from various yeast and fiingi should be thoroughly compared with vegetable oils in order to justify the possibihty to substitute for the current raw materials used for biodiesel production. SCO-derived biodiesel should conform with the requirements of quality biodiesel standards ASTM D6751 (USA), DIN 51606 (Germany), and EN 14214 (EU). The properties of biodiesel produced from SCO such as density, viscosity, heat of combustion, cold flow properties, flash point, cetane number, iodine index, and oxidative stability are dependent on its chemical... 

However, a method to improve the flow properties of such fuel oils of animal or vegetable origin, has been developed (26). This consists in adding a EVA copolymer or a comb polymer based on methyl acrylate and a-olefins. In addition, terpolymers of ethylene, vinyl acetate and isobutylene have been found to be useful as cold flow improvers (29). 

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