Abstract

Numerous vegetable oils and their derivatives, most commonly biodiesel, the mono-alkyl esters of oils or fats, have been investigated for their suitability as fuel, mainly for transportation purposes, although some reports exist on the use of vegetable oils or biodiesel as heating fuel. Indeed, in addition to the commonly applied biodiesel standards ASTM D6751 (United States) and EN 14214 (Europe), a separate standard when using biodiesel as heating oil has been developed, EN 14213 (Europe). The standard ASTM D396 (fuel oils) now covers blends of up to 5% biodiesel with fuel oil if the biodiesel used satisfies the specifications in D6751.