Assessment of shelf life of Bulgarian industrial FAME by the use of modified ASTM D2274 as accelerated oxidation method

• Slightly modified ASTM D 2274 and ASTM D3703 provide reliable kinetic data for FAME shelf life calculation.
• Peroxide values at different temperature induction periods (IP) are not constant values and tend to increase with IP increase at lower temperatures.

Kinetic data for hydroperoxide formation in a commercial biodiesel, produced from 50% sunflower oil and 50% rapeseed oil were obtained by using rapid, higher than standard temperature procedure with sufficient oxygen solubility in the samples. Three different mathematical methods for processing the data and shelf life determination of the studied biodiesel are compared. The applicable methodologies are hydroperoxide concentration abrupt increase graphical determination and Q rule. The calculation shows that shelf life of the studied stabilized Bulgarian biodiesel amounts between 1.17 and 1.27 years. It was also found that peroxide value for induction period at 15 °C is 71.8 meq O2/kg biodiesel.