Volume 6 Issue 1 ( March 2019 )

This study examines the effect of monoglyceride content in biodiesel on the precipitate formation of BXX fuel at three different outdoor temperatures in three locations: Serpong in Banten Province, Lembang in West Java Province and Batu in East Java Province. Each location has its height of 100, 1,500 and 2,000 meters above sea-level (asl), respectively. A modified CSFT method of ASTM D 7501 was applied. Biodiesel was varied for monoglyceride contents to approximately 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8% and mixed with petrodiesel fuel to produce B10, B20 and B30. Each sample was placed outdoors and soaked for 21 days in a 100 mL - closed separating funnel. After 21 days, each sample was then vacuum-filtered and the precipitate retained on the filter paper was then washed with petro-ether prior to drying under vacuum condition. Then, its constant weight was measured. The results showed that the amount of precipitate formed was influenced by the soaking outdoor temperature, biodiesel percentage in BXX fuel and monoglyceride content. The proposed standard (SNI 7182:2015) for monoglyceride content parameter in B100 for producing the quality of B30 equivalent to that of B20 was found to be 0.6%-mass.

Keywords: biodiesel, B20, precipitate, monoglyceride, filter clogging.