Examination of Selected Physicochemical Properties of Biodiesel after Electron Beam Sterilization in Flow System

Paweł Grabowski and Przemysław Jarosiński
Additional contact information
Paweł Grabowski: Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Mechanics and Petrochemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, 17 Łukasiewicza St., 09-400 Płock, Poland
Przemysław Jarosiński: Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Mechanics and Petrochemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, 17 Łukasiewicza St., 09-400 Płock, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: The problem of microbial growth in fuels, especially biofuels, is a very important issue. Water is a necessity for microbial growth to occur. Unfortunately, it is very hard to exclude all water from fuel systems during daily operations, especially when biodiesel is added to the fuel mix. The aim of this work was to investigate the impact of ionizing radiation on selected properties of fatty acids methyl esters in order to evaluate the possibility of using irradiation techniques to sterilize biodiesel and its blends. Ionizing radiation influences the chemical composition of biodiesel samples containing especially unsaturated bonds. Irradiation was performed in a specially designed flow system. The tested parameters were compared with the normative values from the ISO 14214 standard. Density, kinematic viscosity, flash point, water content and cold filter plugging point as a macroscopic parameters do not change despite their irradiation with ionizing radiation. Change was observed in microscopic parameters as oxidation stability and esters content. During irradiation, Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) samples formed oxidation products, which lower the oxidative stability. It was observed that, for esters content, requirements of the standard could be met in the case of using very small doses. In the case of RME samples saturated with water, the changes in the ester concentration were smaller, but the resulting products decreased the oxidation stability. Sterilization fatty acids methyl esters (FAME) was observed with the use of e beam radiation is to apply very low doses (up to 2 kGy) in a flow system without adding water. Sterilization FAME saturated by water requires the use of higher doses of radiation, which adversely affects the oxidative stability.

Keywords: biodiesel; FAME; e-beam irradiation; flow system; sterilization; physicochemical properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/5/1444/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/5/1444/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:5:p:1444-:d:511912

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().