Electric properties of biodiesel in the range from 20 Hz to 20 MHz. Comparison with diesel fossil fuel

L. E. GONZALEZ PRIETO, P. A. SORICHETTI, S. D. ROMANO

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Elsevier

Año: 2008 vol. 33 p. 3531 - 3537

0360-3199

Determination of electric properties at the different steps of biodiesel (BD) production contributes to a better understanding of the influence of the variables. Measurements of complex permittivity and conductivity make possible to survey efficiently the diverse steps of the industrial-scale production process, from the conditioning of the raw material to the quality control of the final product. Moreover, electrical measurements are “non-destructive” and require relatively small sample volumes. In addition, comparison with the properties of fossil Diesel fuel (DF) at different temperatures provides valuable information for the design of sensors to be applied in vehicles of “flexible fuel” technology, optimizing the efficiency in the use of BD, DF and their blends. In this work, complex permittivity spectra of BD and DF from 20 Hz to 20 Mhz are presented. Experimental data were taken in a range of temperatures from 25 to 75ºC, measured with an accuracy of +/- 0.1ºC.