Blendability of Biodiesel

ASTM International’s committee on petroleum products, liquid fuels, and lubricants (D02) is developing a proposed standard that will provide a rapid, portable means to rate the filter blocking potential of a B100 biodiesel blend.

The proposed standard (WK59881) will fill a need for a test method that gives an indication of the blendability of B100 into ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD).

“B100 producers, blenders, and fuel testing labs will be able to perform this 10-minute test and compare results to the only existing test, which is the cold soak test described in D7501,” says ASTM member Ryan Case, Ph.D., engineering head, Emcee Electronics Inc.

Case notes that a ruggedness study has been conducted using both vegetable and animal B100 from 10producers and has generated good results. An outside laboratory performed gas chromatography analysis on the same samples to validate the ruggedness study.