INTRODUCTION

The world of today is faced with an alarming rate of increased carbon dioxide that is said to have been the result of a rapid increase in human population and finding ways to make life easier. An effect of such a phenomenon is the infamous global warming that rapidly produces climate changes. Who would have known that we would one day turn to vegetables as a solution to this current problem? Now, we seek alternatives of fuel that could one day spare us from the rapid warming of our planet. The much abused use of fossil fuels is one of the few things that people blame for todays global warming. When we use these fuels to power up our automobiles, these emit harmful gasses such as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide together with other greenhouse gases tends to accumulate on our atmosphere trapping heat inside the earth which then leads to global warming. (Robinson, 1999) Asides from its devastating contribution to global warming, another reason for the search of an alternative fuel is because our supply of it is limited. Fossil fuels have a very slow turnover time. It takes about a million of years to replace the fossil fuels we are using today. This limited supply then affects the market value for fuel. The market value for fuel has drastically increased in these past few years. That is why the boom of biodiesel has evolved. It is cheap, the resources needed for it are readily available, and it is environmental friendly. (Tyner, 2008) What is biodiesel anyway? The official definition of biodiesel, which is consistent with other federal and state laws and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), states that Biodiesel is defined as a mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats which conform to the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) D6751 specifications for diesel engines. Biodiesel refers to pure fuel with diesel fuel. Biodiesel blends are denoted as BXX with XX representing the percent of biodiesel contained in the blend. In other words, it is a clean, alternative fuel made from domestic and renewable materials through the process of transesterifictaion. Biodiesel has been described as biodegrable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. It contains no petroleum and it could be mixed at any level with petroleum creating a biodiesel blend. It is safe to use it in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications at all. The earliest study known was done by G.
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Chavanne of Brussels on the 31st of August, 1937. He was granted a patent for the Procd de Transformation dHuiles Vegetales en Vue de Leur Ultilisation comme Carburants (Procedure for the Transformation of vegetable oils for their Uses as Fuels). He had managed to describe the alcoholysis or transesterification of vegetable oils using ethanols in order to separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol with short linear alcohols. (National Renewal Energy Laboratory, 2005) The biodiesel boom has been the trend of today that is why a lot of countries have been adopting the idea including the Philippines. On the year of 2005, an act has been proposed for the further use of alternative fuels. As directly quoted from the Biodiesel Act of 2005, that asides from lessening our dependence on imported oil and buffering us from the rising oil prices in the world market, the promotion of biofuels will encourage the creation of biofuel industries and spur agro-industrial employment. Because the coconut has been a staple in the Philippines, it is the choice of crop for the production of biodiesel. And since the Philippines is a highly agricultural country, it is foreseen that it will experience no problems in seeking plants that could be made into fuel. (Gordon, 2005) To further understand biodiesel, a review of related journals and other publications was made. This was done in the hopes to answer questions such as the safety and stability of biodiesel, and its effects, whether good or bad. The article of Wallace E. Tyner the biofuel boom is one of the few articles cited in this paper. His paper is vital in understanding the relationship between biofuel and the economy. To quote Mr. Tyner, he had said that We have entered a new era in which agriculture supplies not only food, feed, and fiber but also fuel and this is mainly because of the ethanol policy and increased in oil prices. (Tyner, 2008) Other works cited were from the authors Takashi Hoshino and T.L Alleman. Their works would help justify the true stability of biodiesel. The main objective of this paper is to measure the stability of biodiesel. It seeks to ask the question of its safety and other harmful effects it may carry. Is fuel from vegetable oil and animal fats are that stable to be able to run our cars? Alongside, the biodiesel boom in the Philippines would also be discussed as this concerns us. What is the current state of biodiesel here in the Philippines?

It is also important to understand the negative effects that biodiesel might bring. The article of Joseph Fargione entitled Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt is a wonderful article that discusses such. It has been argued in that article that converting savannas, peatlands, grasslands, and rainforests in order to produce food crop-based biofuels in places such as Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States tends to produce a biofuel carbon debt. This is done by releasing 17-420 times more carbon dioxide as compared to the annual greenhouse gas reduction that these biofuels would provide by displacing fossil fuels. It all depends on how these food crop-based biofuels are produced. Biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass drown on degraded or abandoned agricultural lands are planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and can offer immediate and sustained greenhouse gasses advantages. (Fargione, 2008) Understanding the disadvantages of using biodiesel helps us answer the question of whether or not the biodiesel trend is here to stay. This paper focuses only on the strength of biodiesel as an alternative fuel. It does not aim to properly explain what biodiesel is, therefore, the understanding of the subject matter limited.

METHODOLOGY

In this part of the paper, the methods that have been done in some of the reviewed literature would be discussed. This is done as to see what steps these authors had take in order to justify their results. The first method to be discussed is from the article of Hiroshi Koseki, Takashi Hoshino, and Yusaku Iwata entitled Oxidation Stability and Risk Evaluation of Biodiesel. Their article had described the oxidation and thermal stability, and hazardous possibility of biodiesel when it auto-oxidizes. A comparison of the European and United States standard of testing was done. For the evaluation of stability in the European Union, the European project Stability of Biodiesel is the one used. It has developed accurate methods for the measurement of thermal, oxidation, and storage stability. For the oxidation stability or for the presence of oxygen, the Rancimat test was selected which is derived from food chemistry. The sample is aged at elevated temperatures by passing air through a constant rate. The effluent gasses produced were then collected in a measuring cell that is filled with distilled water, in which the conductivity is constantly recorded. When the sample breaks down, there would be a sharp increase in conductivity. The time up to this point is known as the induction period (IP). It is during this time that the temperature at which the measurements were conducted needs to be specified. The Rancimat test was used for seven methyl esters that came from rapeseed oil, sunflower seed, used frying oil and tallow, and each distilled and undistilled. A ranking of the samples was obtained based on their resistance towards oxidation for each parameter studied and this ranking was then compared to the one provided by the Rancimat IP. Thermal and storage stability were also measured using a modified Rancimat test. For the stability evaluation in the United States, accredited tests from the NREL were performed. These tests include a.) ASTM D2274, Standard Test Method, Test Method for Oxidation Stability of Distillate Fuel Oil, b.) ASTM D6468, Test Method for High Temperature Stability of Distillate Fuels, and c.) EN 14112 (Rancimat). In order to predict storage stability, D2274 and the Rancimat Test are used. This involves exposing the sample to air which then causes the formation of volatile carboxylic acid due to an oxidation reaction. In the D224 Standard Test Method, the sample is heated to a temperature of 95C and exposed to oxygen for
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16 hours. This is done in order to determine the amount of sediment or filterable insoluble and gum or adherent soluble. Lastly, D6468 test involves exposing the sample to air with a temperature of 150C for 3 hours. The sediments formed are then captured on a filter paper and the reflectance of sediments of a particular light source is measured. (Hoshino, 2007) The next paper to be discussed is another article of Koseki, Hoshino, and Iwata entitled Spontaneous Ignition of Biodiesel: A Potential Fire Risk. They did a further study on the potential fire risk of biodiesel which was at one time suspected as a cause of a fire in Japan. The methods they use includes a gas chromatography analysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, measurements of flash point, autoignition temperature, and iodine value, thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis, and a heating test in accordance with Wire Basket Test (WBT). (Hoshino, 2008) The last literature is that of Alleman and McCormick entitled Analysis of Coconutderived Biodiesel and Conventional Diesel Fuel Samples from the Philippines. The fuel sample was provided to the NREL for further testing. Three fuel samples were given namely an unadditized diesel fuel, an additized diesel fuel, and a coconut-derived biodiesel. Each of the samples was analyzed neat and as a blend of with the coconut-derived biodiesel (1% and 5%). There are four components of the test namely fuel property, stability, microbial degradation, and blend level determination. For the fuel property, the results were compared with the Philippine National Standard and analogous results from a soy-derived biodiesel in the United States. The carbon residue was tested by using ASTM D524 rather than D4530. The cetane number was measured by ASTM D6890 using an ignition quality tester. Because of the practice of the Philippines to push diesel fuels through pipeline with water, the separability of diesel fuel and water was also tested. The test measures known volumes of diesel fuel and water separate after mixing for 5 minutes at elevated temperatures. Tests using accelerated methods to approximate field aging were used to test for the stability property of biodiesel. The neat samples and the 5% blends of coconut-derived biodiesel in the unadditized fuel and the additized fuel were tested using the ASTM D2274 and ASTM D 6468for accelerated and high temperature stability. The 1% blend was not tested as the 5% blend represents the most extreme case in terms of stability. Storage stability on the other hand was

measured using ASTM D4625 for the unadditized and additized diesel samples, the coconutderived biodiesel, and a 5% blend. This method is done using mildly accelerated conditions. For the fuels susceptibility to microbial degradation, ASTME1259 was used. Sixteen indicators for biodegradability were examined for neat diesel and the neat coconut-derived biodiesel samples. In order to determine the percentage of biodiesel in a fuel sample, a Fourier Transform infrared method has been used which uses an Attenuated Thermal Reflectance liquid cell. (Alleman, 2009)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results obtained from the literatures cited would now be discussed in order to gain a few insights on biodiesel. For the first paper of Koseki and co-authors, it has been found out that biodiesel has a higher flash point than diesel fuel therefore it is considered as a safety fuel. However, it has also been concluded that biodiesel has a high probability of causing a fire during storage or handling of it due to the presence of double bond(s) in its structure and the easy production of peroxides which have a high possibility of oxidizing which would result in combustion. Only one out of the 27 fuels tested had passed the European specification for the Rancimat test. (Hoshino, 2007) The second work of Koseki and co-authors that involves a study of the possible spontaneous ignition of biodiesel which was suspected as a cause of a fire in Japan. Results show that the main component of the biodiesel they had sampled was unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters, more specifically, methyl linoleate and methyl oleate. Both of these substances are susceptible to exothermic decompositions. An exothermic decomposition could be initiated by the formation of allyl radicals either through thermal or photothermal reaction. It was also found out that the heat onset of biodiesel is of the temperature 100C which is 45C lower than that of vegetables. Under isothermal conditions with a 100C temperature, the inner temperature of biodiesel had rose rapidly after a short induction period and had smoked. Vegetable oils on the other hand, have a constant inner temperature of 100C for more than ten hours. The obtained results have lead them to arrived at a conclusion that biodiesel do possess a higher risk of spontaneous ignition than vegetable oils. (Hoshino, 2008) The last literature cited involves the work of Alleman and McCormick which discusses the stability of using coconuts as a medium for the production of biodiesel in the Philippines. On the test for fuel property, which was compared with the Philippine National Standard and the US result of a soy-derived biodiesel, it shows that all the fuel had met all the requirements for the Philippines National Standard. Therefore, diesel fuel has adequate storage ability. Another finding from the separation of water and diesel fuel test had shown that miscibility is low and very little water mixes with the diesel fuel sample. To finish, the coconut-derived biodiesel, the
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unadditized diesel, and the additized diesel has all shown similar susceptibility to microbial deterioration. Based on the obtained results, Alleman and McCormick had concluded that coconut-derived biodiesel had met the Philippine National Standards for diesel fuel quality. (Alleman, 2009)

CONCLUSION Turning to biodiesel as an alternative fuel is possibly a wise choice. It is indeed cheaper and readily available when it comes to its resources plus it is environment friendly in terms of the possible harmful gasses that it could emit. In the Philippines, several moves have been made in order to establish a biofuel industry that could limit our oil importations and provide jobs to the agricultural community. Flying V, a renowned oil company in the Philippines, has been observed to be marketing biodiesels together with other brand of fuels. Based on the works of Alleman and McCormick, coconut-derived biodiesel is stable enough having met the Philippine National Standard and its result was comparable enough to a soy-derived biodiesel from the US. However, the possible harmful effects of biodiesel should be considered such as that proposed by Fargione. Unfortunately, only the abstract of his work is available for free, that is why an overview of his work was the only thing that was cited. It is, however, enough to say that in choosing ways to produce crop food-based biodiesel, we must evaluate it wisely. Clearing up of an extensive are for growth of such plants is not a wise move. We must take onto consideration the possible carbon debt it may incur and must remember the main reason why we are changing our fuels to an eco-friendly one. It is highly recommended that one should properly evaluate the studies that propose possible harmful effects of biodiesel before completely relying on it. Based on the high demand for a cheaper fuel alternative, it seems that the biodiesel boom is here to stay. For us to properly utilize the advantage of biodiesel, an extensive study of it should be made such as what crops could be used. The biodiesel industry is still young. An extensive research must be made on its stability and what is proposed as carbon debt it may bring. This paper has failed to extensively answer how stable biodiesel really is. It had only reach to a conclusion that it is easily combustible and the handling and storage of it must be properly done as to avoid setting it on fire just like any other types of fuel.

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