Corrosion behaviours of mild steel in biodiesel-diesel fuel blend

The crisis of petroleum-based fuels, global warming and the environment is a major issue the world today. The presence of biodiesel as an alternative fuel raises concerns associated with increased residual excessive fuel, increased acidity, oxidation, and corrosion. The main objective of this study was to observe the corrosion behaviour of the mild steel immersed in J50C50 biodiesel-diesel fuel blends in the period up to 800 hours at ambient temperature. The results showed that the corrosion rate at 800 hours immersion are 0.0103, 0.0044, 0.0117, 0.0155, 0.2283 and 0.02524 mm/year, respectively for B0, B10, B20, B30, B40 and B50. Mild steel coupon surface observation using SEM showed corrosion attacks are characterized by round holes on the metal surface. The addition of J50C50 biodiesel into diesel fuel caused increase of corrosion rate and total acid number. Overall, corrosion observations conducted on mild steel show that J50C50 biodiesel-diesel fuel blend is more corrosive compare to diesel fuel.