Fuel properties of hydroprocessed rapeseed oil

This paper deals with the hydroprocessing of rapeseed oil as a source of hydrocarbon-based biodiesel. Rapeseed oil was hydroprocessed in a laboratory flow reactor under four combinations of reaction conditions at temperatures 310 and 360 °C and under hydrogen pressure of 7 and 15 MPa. A commercial hydrotreating Ni–Mo/alumina catalyst was used. Reaction products contained mostly n-heptadecane and n-octadecane accompanied by low concentrations of other n-alkanes and i-alkanes. Reaction product obtained at 360 °C and 7 MPa was blended into mineral diesel fuel in several concentration levels ranging from 5 to 30 wt.%. It was found, that most of the standard parameters were similar to or better than those of pure mineral diesel. On the other hand, low-temperature properties were worse, even after addition of high concentrations of flow improvers.