Cold flow properties of biodiesel obtained from corn oil

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effects of parameters of transesterification on the cold flow properties of corn oil based biodiesel such as cloud point, pour point and cold filter plugging point. Reaction parameters examined were the transesterification temperature (in the range of 20-60 °C), reaction time (10-60 min), alcohol-to-oil ratio (3.15:1-12.85:1 in moles), amount of catalyst (0.25-2 gcatalyst/100 mL corn oil) and stirring speed (300-800 rpm). As a result, it has been observed that when the transesterification reaction period is kept longer than 10 min, there were no changes in cold flow properties of the biodiesel obtained. In addition, better cold flow properties were monitored when alcohol-to-oil ratio was kept between 3.15:1 and 4.15:1. While no effect of reaction temperature on cold flow properties was observed above 20 °C, amount of basic catalyst used in the experiments gave the lowest cold flow properties at the percent of 0.75. Stirring speed has been ineffective in terms of cold flow properties in the transesterification process.