Prediction of Cetane Number of Biodiesel Fuel from Fatty Acid Ethyl Ester (FAEE) Composition

In this paper, we predict the Cetane Number of the fatty acidethyl ester according to weight percentage of fatty acids available in the fuel. The biodiesel fuel is produced with the transesterification method using ethanol and sodium hydroxide as catalyst from seven types of vegetable oils (sunflower, soybeans, canola, olive, corn, grape seed and rice bran). The weight percentage of fatty acid ethyl esters available in fuel was performed using the GC-Mass device according to ASTM standards. The CFR engine was used for measuring the Cetane Number in motoring method. The results of the tests were presented as a regression model between four independent and dependent variables. The four independent variables are palmitic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid, and the dependent variable is Cetane Number. For evaluation of this model, other model presented were compared based on relation between Cetane number as dependent variable with density and aniline point of biodiesel fuel as independent variable that used from nonlinear regression analysis. Comparison of results showed that the linear regression according to the fatty acid ethyl ester composition has a higher coefficient of determination and prediction accuracy.