Storskalaprojekt med forsyning af AFME biodiesel i ... - Trafikstyrelsen

Under the current framework conditions, use of biodiesel will mean increased costs for
the oil sector. A major part of these costs is the cost of the bio-component itself, but
there are also costs associated with changes to the base product. Extra costs for the
base diesel have been relatively high in the test period as an alternative standard
product had to be purchased, which was not necessarily optimised for that use.
Apart from extra costs for the fuel itself, there will be expenses for conversion of
storage tanks and even refineries. The oil industry has estimated that based on the
project results, a complete conversion to handling of biodiesel including certification
and approval could take up to 1½ years.
Work with optimisation of the product in relation to commercial use has shown that as
is also the case for non-biodiesel over the course of a year, there is a need for
different solutions to satisfy the Danish oil industry’s demands and norms, as well as
to minimise costs. During the test period, 2 diesel qualities were used, compared with
3 under normal non-biodiesel conditions.
5% biodiesel was added to the base diesel throughout the project period. Base diesel
quality was primarily adjusted for density and cold weather performance. Adjustment
of the cold weather performance for the summer period was not as large as under
winter conditions, the reason being that biodiesel is very hard to adjust to a winter
quality. During the winter period, Norwegian standard winter quality diesel was
imported as the most effective solution.
In general, the product which was distributed in the test period was very stable with
respect to oxidation in storage facilities and fuel systems, which is supported by the
fact that B5 complies with the higher demands for oxidation stability in EN590.
During the project, there was intensive work to find alternative solutions to the winter
situation in the form of various additives, so that a normal Danish winter diesel – or
slightly modified version, could be used in the future. The cold weather characteristics
CFPP can possibly be adjusted by the addition of flow improvers, though further
testing and approval is necessary. Adjustment of cloud can only be done by changes
in production in refineries, which would be a relatively expensive solution.
In general it must be expected that use of AFME gives some extra costs to base
diesel, not least in the winter period, which is reflected in a lower price for AFME
compared with RME during this season. AFME has however other advantages including
low water, monoglyceride and metal content, as well as high stability (low lacquer
formation) as a result of the low content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, doubling
counting etc. Market forces will prevail, as is the case in many other EU regions,
where FAME types are blended according to available base diesel and end product
specifications.
During optimisation of the product characteristics, there appeared a number of
unexpected reactions between different components in the biodiesel and the base
diesel used. This meant that the cold weather performance for a blended product is
source specific, with respect to both the biodiesel and the base diesel. Experience with
optimisation of base diesel with respect to biodiesel has been particularly beneficial,
also over the longer term for suggestions for other bio-components than the animal-
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