Original Article Biodiesel as a lubricity additive for ultra low sulfur diesel

With the worldwide trend to reduce emission from diesel engines, ultra low sulfur diesel has been introduced with the sulfur concentration of less than 10 ppm. Unfortunately, the desulfurization process inevitably reduces the lubricity of diesel fuel significantly. Alternatively, biodiesel, with almost zero sulfur content, has been added to enhance lubricity in an ultra low sulfur diesel. This work has evaluated the effectiveness of the biodiesel amount, sourced from palm and jatropha oil, and origin in ultra low sulfur diesel locally available in the market. Wear scar from a high-frequency reciprocating rig is benchmarked to the standard value (460 m) of diesel fuel lubricity. It was found that very small amount (less than 1%) of biodiesel from either source significantly improves the lubricity in ultra low sulfur diesel, and the biodiesel from jatropha oil is a superior lubricity enhancer