Abstract
We report on the preparation and selected properties of some new biodiesels which we synthesized from oils of plants growing in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The composition and the low-temperature properties such as crystallization onset T c and end of melting T m investigated with the help of differential scanning calorimetry are presented. Some of these biodiesels exhibited remarkably good low-temperature characteristics. In order to further improve these properties, we use a variety of alcohols during the transesterification process, including isopropyl, 2-butyl, and isoamyl alcohols. Using several parameters such as oil content and crystallization onset temperature T c, plant species that appear most promising have been identified, among those highbush cranberry (T c -31 °C for its methyl esters, T c -41 °C for its 2-butyl esters), dotted horsemint (T c -17 °C for its methyl esters, T c -40 °C for its 2-butyl esters), and American hazelnut (T c -19 °C for its methyl esters, T c -30 °C for its 2-butyl esters).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 721-725 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | JAOCS, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments We are grateful to Tom Markee, Nicholas Osborn, and Divya Parapati for their help. We would also like to express our deep gratitude to the Reviewers for their remarks that were useful in improving the clarity and the overall quality of the manuscript. Funding for this project has been provided by Army Research Lab under Agreement # W911NF-08-2-0029; we are also grateful to the University of Wisconsin System ARG Program for continued funding.
Keywords
- Biodiesel feedstocks
- Branched-chain esters
- Crystallization
- Differential scanning calorimetry
