Influence of fatty acid composition of woody biodiesel plants on the fuel properties

Ten major trees that can be used as the potential raw materials of biodiesel are taken as the research objects, and the influence of their fruit or seeds’ fatty acid composition on the biodiesel was studied. The results showed that the fuel properties such as cetane number, idodine number and oxidation stability were mainly determined by the degree of unsaturation of raw oils fatty acid. When the degree of unsaturation of raw oils fatty acid was lower than 133.13, cetane number (GB/T 20828-2007) and iodine number (EN 14214) could be up to the standards. With the increase of the long chain saturated fatty acids, cold filter plugging point of the biodiesel product tended to be higher. When the chain length saturated factors less than 8.41 and 2.72, it could meet the standards of 0℃ and -10℃ of cold filter plugging point. The raw materials for high-quality biodiesel should have high content of monounsaturated fatty acids. Basis on the study of the compositions of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated methyl esters, a triangular prediction graph for biodiesel fuel properties was worked out, which could provide references for the prediction of the fuel properties of biodiesel product.