Winter waxing
High Melt Point Esters are Fatty Acid Methyl Esters with a melt point above ambient.
They are typically seen in winter as either suspended flakes in the biodiesel, or white/yellow cream at the bottom of drums.
The presence of HMPEs in the produced fuel is thought to be mostly feedstock related, with processing method playing only a minor part. There is some speculation that the Whole Batch Demeth (WBD) processing method may produce more HMPEs than traditional methods (possibly because the yeild is higher using this technique), though this is unconfirmed.
The level of HMPEs in the final fuel may be reduced by doing a cold Water Prewash.
- High Melt Point Esters
HMPEs at bottom of barrel
A closer look at the ball formation
HMPE balls on the side of a barrel
HMPEs after bio is filtered off
HMPEs forming around the coil of a beer chiller
A closer look
