Simulated Distillation for Biofuel Analysis

Simulated distillation (SimDis) is a gas chromatographic method and has evolved into an indispensable tool in petroleum industries to determine the distillation behavior of different petroleum products and to ensure fuel quality. In contrast to classic physical distillation, SimDis exhibits a range of advantages that include comparatively very small sample amounts and the possibility of automation, which are of great importance in fields of research and in the development of novel fuels. Within this work we could show that SimDis can also be used to characterize not only boiling behaviors of fossil fuels, but also alternative fuels as different kinds of biodiesel. Analysis of different kinds of biodiesel and biodiesel blends, as presented in our work, shows that shorter chain fatty acid methyl esters, as can be found in coconut oil, can significantly change the distillation characteristic to a more favorable distillation curve, which resembles a fossil diesel fuels boiling behavior. The second part of our...