Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3196 – 3202 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect 2214-7853 © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing and Characterization. doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.114 4th International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterization Investigation of Metals andAntioxidants on Stability Characteristics of Biodiesel Puneet Verma 1* , M.P. Sharma 2 , Gaurav Dwivedi 3 1, 2,3 Biofuel Research Laboratory, Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand- 247667, India Abstract With rapid rise in global economy, energy demands are rising at a very high rate which has resulted in excessive utilisation of fossil fuel resources. To cope with the energy demand, there is significant research being done in field of alternative fuel resources. Biodiesel offers a great choice being its renewable nature. Biodiesel is mainly derived from vegetable oils like edible, non-edible oils, animal fats and algae. There are various problems associated with use of biodiesel like high viscosity and stability which are long chain fatty acid alkyl esters, which contains unsaturated portions that are susceptible to oxidation. Metal containers used for storage of biodiesel also affects its stability. Antioxidants are often used to inhibit biodiesel oxidative degradation. The present paper investigates the previous research done on effect of metal on stability of biodiesel and there remedial efforts with use of antioxidants. Metals have catalytic effect on biodiesel stability. Pyrogallol is found to be the most effective antioxidant to improve the oxidation stability in case of almost all biodiesels reviewed. © 2014 The Authors. Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing and Characterization. Keywords: Metal; Biodiesel; Stability; Antioxidants 1. Introduction During the past decades, energy demands have been increasing at a faster rate. To cater this increasing demand, interest has shifted towards alternative sources of fuel. Biodiesel has been studied as an excellent alternative for petroleum diesel. Since the early 1990s, various studies on biodiesel have been carried out. There are several advantages of using biodiesel like conservation of petroleum, employment opportunities due to production of biodiesel feedstocks and eco-friendly nature, as it is biodegradable, non-toxic and it produces less harmful emissions. Despite these advantages, there are several drawbacks that limit the use of biodiesel in engine. Among these, poor stability and cold flow property are main two parameters which reduce its functional capability [1]. Vegetable oil or fats are reacted with short chain alcohol, usually methanol and ethanol, to produce a mixture of corresponding mono-alkyl esters defined as biodiesel. This process is known as tranesterification [2]. The biodiesel has the same fatty acids compositions similar to the parent oils or fatties with considerable proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. Its oxidative stability, therefore, becomes a crucial quality issue during long term storage. Different vegetable oils obtained from soybean, castor, sunflower, cotton, corn, palm, etc. are widely used for biodiesel production in different part of the world depending on the cultivation of oil crop. India imports about 40–50% of total domestic edible oil demand [3,4]. *Corresponding Author: Tel.: 07696899865, Fax: +91 1332 273517 E-mail: itspuneetv@gmail.com, © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing and Characterization.