Water saturation in palm biodiesel blends.

Biodiesel has been a favorable renewable fuel to substitute petroleum diesel fuel. It can be produced from renewable resources such as palm oil. However, water content in biodiesel fuel and its blends becomes a crucial aspect of fuel quality. Increasing water content is one of the main obstacles to maintain fuel quality delivered to consumers. An understanding of the behavior of water content in biodiesel and its blends is therefore important as a reference in improving its quality to meet the standard specification. It is required as the reference on procedure for handling and transportation of the fuel. In this research, water solubility in fuel as a function of temperature and compositions were investigated. Palm biodiesel blends of B100, B30, B40, and B50 were titrated with water until the dissolved water became saturated at controlled temperature of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 °C, respectively. The result showed that water saturation rises with increase in temperature and higher volume of biodiesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]