73. Improving Cold Flow Properties of Biodiesels Using Binary Biodiesel Blends

The environmental threats posed by rapidly deleting the fossil fuels are currently a major global concern and lead to the research of alternative energy resources. The biodiesel is considered as substitute of diesel but the biodiesel suffers with the disadvantage that the fuel quality is very much impacted by its cold flow properties. The present paper aims to improve the cold flow properties (CFP) of biodiesels by binary blending and blending with kerosene and ethanol as CFP improvers. Jatropha biodiesel (JB) and Pongamia biodiesel (PB) were blended with diesel, kerosene, ethanol and microalgal biodiesel (MB), and it is found that JB₂₀ blend has 27% lower CP and PP compared to JB₁₀₀. JBK₄₀ blend lowers the CP and PP to 7 and 3 °C, respectively, while JBK₂₀ blend maximally lowers the CP and PP up to −15 and −18.3 °C, respectively, but due to its non-renewable nature and emits lots of smoke due to kerosene it is not recommended for use in engine. JBE₂₀ blend further reduces the CP and PP to 16 and 13 °C, which is higher than diesel. Therefore, ethanol is not recommended for blending purpose but may be used as CFP in lesser proportion. The results showed that JBM₂₀ blend has significantly improved CP and PP (9.2 and 5.5 °C) and PBM₂₀ blend also has lower CP and PP (12 and 7.5 °C) compared to JB₁₀₀ and PB₁₀₀. So, JB₂₀, JBM₂₀ and PBM₂₀ blends can be recommended for use in engine under low-temperature conditions.