Premium
An Empirical Equation for Estimation of Kinematic Viscosity of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters and Biodiesel
Author(s) -
Phankosol Suriya,
Sudaprasert Kaokanya,
Lilitchan Supathra,
Aryusuk Kornkanok,
Krisnangkura Kanit
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-015-2667-7
Subject(s) - biodiesel , viscosity , fatty acid methyl ester , kinematics , chemistry , fatty acid , biodiesel production , thermodynamics , mathematics , organic chemistry , physics , catalysis , classical mechanics
Kinematic viscosity ( µ ) is an important physical property of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and biodiesel. In this work, the Martin's rule of free energy additivity is extended to cover the kinematic viscosity of saturated and unsaturated FAME commonly found in nature. The proposed model can also be extended to estimate kinematic viscosity of biodiesel. The kinematic viscosity of a FAME or a biodiesel can be easily estimated from its carbon number ( z ), number of double bonds ( n d ) at different temperatures ( T ) without a prior knowledge of the viscosity of individual FAME. Both z ave and n d(ave) can be derived from its fatty acid composition. Thus, kinematic viscosity of biodiesel at temperatures between 20 and 100 °C and at atmospheric pressure can be estimated. The average absolute deviation (AAD) estimated at 20–100 °C for saturated, unsaturated FAME, biodiesels and biodiesel blends are 4.15, 3.25, 6.95 and 2.79 %, respectively. The biodiesels collected in this study (191 data points) have the z ave and n d(ave) between 14.10 and 17.96 and 0.21–1.54, respectively. The standard deviation was 0.249. The proposed model would be good for estimation of viscosity of biodiesel containing normal fatty acids, generally found in biodiesel feed stocks.