Fuel structure and properties of biodiesel produced by the peroxidation process

Biodiesel is a clean alternative fuel, which can be used to reduce the emission pollution from diesel engines. The improvement of fuel properties of biodiesel through production technique was investigated in this study. A chemical production procedure of transesterification reaction combined with an additional peroxidation process was applied to produce the biodiesel. It was shown that the biodiesel produced by this method has a larger weight proportion of saturated carbon bonds, higher kinematic viscosity, and a higher flash point with less fuel residue collected after the fuel burning, than the biodiesel without the additional peroxidation process. Moreover, the peroxide value and the acid number increased while the thiobarbituric acid value, iodine value, combined relative oxidation rate, and number of double bonds of fatty acids reduced for the biodiesel produced with the additional peroxidation process. Therefore, it was concluded that the peroxidation process for biodiesel production can be used to improve the fuel properties of biodiesel.