My company has been doing some testing with regard to shelf life of Biodiesel. This driven mainly by the debate going on between European and North American standards bodies. ASTM 6571 does not address fuel stability, but the European tests for stability will really only pass BD made from Rapeseed. Enough on that though, the question at hand is shelf life.
The findings that we have are that BD does more readily oxidize than petrol diesel. So if left in a open container the shelf life is very short. It will still burn after oxidized but not nearly as well. On the other, most of us would be storing our BD in a sealed container, which limits the oxidation to the amount of air and surface area. The best thing to do is to store it in a sealed container that is as full as practically possible. This limits oxidation to a level that probably won't be noticeable. Of course, if you really want to keep it a long time you can displace the air in the container with nitrogen and then it will keep for a long time, this is something of course that only the military would consider. Hope this helps. Doug Memering > Keith Addison wrote: > >>Who is putting about mis- or disinfo that biodiesel has a very short >>shelf-life? >> >>We keep getting enquiries from people who seem to think so. >> >>"Does the biodiesel have a shelf life?" >> >>Or: >> >>"I read somewhere that biodesil has a short shelf life." >> >>And so on and on and on. "Somewhere", hm. >> >>Any ideas where this BS is coming from? >> >>Best >> >>Keith Addison >>Journey to Forever >>KYOTO Pref., Japan >>http://journeytoforever.org/ _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
