The desirability of developing biodiesel from different tree born oil seeds and decreasing the dependency on petroleum based fuels has been discussed by many over the last few decades. However some of the important issues of biodiesel like lubricity, low temperature flow characteristic, material compatibility have not been sufficiently investigated. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore the lubricity and cold flow properties of biodiesel separately based on the experimental results. These two properties though may not be related with each other but plays significant role towards the long term acceptability of biodiesel in an existing CI engine. For biodiesel, the lubricity parameter is important to evaluate in the context of recent advent of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (<10 ppm sulfur in Europe) which has raised the concern over the ability of these fuels to sufficiently lubricate diesel engine components in fuel injection system. In the very specific case of biodiesel, the lubricity could be defined as its ability to minimize or completely prevent wear in fuel pumps and injectors. Also, the biodiesel fuels derived from fats or oils with significant amounts of saturated fatty compounds will display higher cloud points and pour points which questions the pumping and injecting of these biodiesel in CI engines under cold climates.
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