Influences of Marine Environment to the Characteristics of Palm Oil Biodiesel during Storage

Biodiesel from palm oil is one of the alternative energies developed in Indonesia and
has been implemented since 2018 for marine transportation, especially for ships.
However, there are pertinent cases that experienced many obstacles related to the
occurrence of gels, engine power reduction, blocking filters, and injection in the
engine. The occurrence of those cases is due to the prolonged storage of biodiesel
onboard of ships. During a significant storage process, periodic biodiesel monitoring is
required which is difficult to do onboard. In this paper, a study on the
physical/chemical characteristics of biodiesel and microbiological growth had been
carried out in a controlled effect of the marine environment. Samples of biodiesel
blends B20 were placed in locations near the sea and land base areas. It was found that
there were significant changes in some chemical parameters of the biodiesel, such as
flash point, viscosity, and acid number after 30 days. Microbiological growth,
specifically bacteria, appeared on the 45th day of the outdoor-land sample. On the
other hand, fungus growth on the out-door-sea was also detected on the same day. It
suggested that the growth of microorganisms, growth of fungus and change in
characteristics of the marine environment causes the degradation of biodiesel.