The Effect of Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters Concentration on the Kinematic Viscosity of Biodiesel Fuel

Abstract

Several biodiesel fuel samples produced from rapeseed oil by the noncatalyzed transesterification reaction with supercritical ethanol at various temperatures from (593 to 653) K and molar ethanol to rapeseed oil ratios from (6:1 to 20:1) were used to measure kinematic viscosity. Measurements were made using the capillary viscometer (VPZ-2, Labtex Com., Moscow). The combined expanded uncertainty of the kinematic viscosity measurements at the 95 % confidence level with a coverage factor of k = 2 is estimated to be 0.35 %. All measurements were made at temperature of 313.5 K (ASTM D445) and at atmospheric pressure. The effect of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) content on the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel fuel samples at 313.15 K was studied. The correlation between the FAEEs concentration in biodiesel fuel samples and their measured kinematic viscosity at 313.15 K was found. The derived correlation between the kinematic viscosity and the FAEEs contents allows controlling the progress of the rapeseed oil transesterification process with supercritical ethanol.