Study of ethylic Babassu biodiesel properties at low temperatures

Nowadays the growing fuel deficit requires the development of alternative fuel sources. Biodiesel is a good substitute to the conventional diesel because it is quite similar to the fossil fuel in its main characteristics. However, there are some obstacles, as the properties of cold-flow, to the development of a more useful alternative fuel. In this work we use the X-ray diffraction and differential calorimetry scanning to study low temperature properties of ethylic Babassu biodiesel. Our results show that the nucleation of crystals starts below −8 °C and the crystallization temperature does not change significantly when the sample was submitted to a winterization process. The higher concentrations of ethyl esters from saturated fat acid are probably responsible for this characteristic. The X-ray diffraction, combined with DSC measurements, was efficiently employed in the characterization of cold-flow biodiesel properties, showing to be very helpful techniques.