A novel higher fatty acid-based polymeric cold flow improver with remarkable effects for biodiesel - diesel blends

Abstract

In order to develop renewable resources of environment-friendly for the preparation of cold flow improvers for diesel-biodiesel blends, a novel comb-like copolymers were synthesized from higher fatty acids, para (p)-anisic acid, and glycidyl methacrylate. The effects of copolymers on cold flow properties and crystallization behaviors of biodiesel-diesel blends were evaluated and analyzed. This research pointed out that the higher fatty acids as the copolymer branch chain increased the matching ability with paraffin and higher fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), and the anisic acid side chain increased the rigidity of the copolymers. Therefore, the prepared copolymers can preferentially precipitate in the blends and act as the nucleation site so that lead to heterogeneous nucleation of paraffin and higher fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), thus improving the low-temperature fluidity. In addition, the copolymers exhibited satisfactory performance on reducing cloud point (CP), cold filter plugging point (CFPP), and pour point (PP), which were reduced respectively by 2, 8, and 10 °C for B10 (10 vol%. biodiesel +90 vol%. diesel); 2, 13, and 8 °C for B20 (20 vol%. biodiesel +80 vol%. diesel) and 2, 11, and 7 °C for B30 (30 vol%. biodiesel +70 vol%. diesel) at the addition of 1000 mg / kg.