Vapor pressure and normal boiling point predictions for pure methyl esters and biodiesel fuels

Temperature dependent vapor pressures of the methyl esters of fourteen fatty acids that are commonly present in biodiesel fuels were predicted by the Antoine equation and a group contribution method. The predicted boiling points of these esters up to a pressure of 100 mmHg were within ±1.0% of reported data for these two methods. Normal boiling points were determined from both the predicted vapor pressure and a correlation equation and the prediction errors were less than 5 K comparing to available published data. The vapor pressure and normal boiling points of 19 real-world biodiesel fuels were predicted and compared with reported data where available. The prediction errors of normal boiling points were less than 1.0%, and the predicted vapor pressures were also observed to closely match the reported data among the methyl esters of soybean oil, rapeseed oil and tallow. The predicted results showed that, except for coconut and butterfat, most of the methyl esters of the vegetable oils and animal fats had a normal boiling point in the range of 620–630 K. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the variation of fatty acid composition and the uncertainty of the normal boiling point of C18:2 were the main factors that affected the predicted normal boiling points of the biodiesel fuels.