By using additives such as flow improvers, the cold properties of fuels can be improved in winter. To ensure the interaction-free additivation of biodiesel with flow improvers (BDFI), Association Quality Management Biodiesel e.V. (AGQM) has developed a globally unique and demanding test procedure in cooperation with the mineral oil and additive industry – the No-Harm Test BDFI.

The no-harm test for flow improvers consists of two parts. At the beginning, minimum requirements such as the lowering of the Cold Filter Plugging Point (CFPP), ash content, flash point, total contamination and interaction tests with other BDFI are examined in pure FAME. Further investigations are carried out in a B10 fuel specially developed for the no-harm test. The diesel fuel component already contains high admixtures of flow improvers (MDFI) and anti-settling agents (WASA) so that the additive to be tested is tested in a worst-case scenario with regard to filterability, engine oil compatibility, corrosion, foam and emulsion formation as well as in the XUD9 engine test. A reference diesel fuel and biodiesel of constant quality are used for the test, so that the comparability between future no-harm test rounds is also guaranteed.

In the first test round, only two of the seven additives tested met all requirements. This shows once again how important it is to test additives for their compatibility and suitability before use.

Chimec 6830 and Chimec 6043 have been added to the new no-harm list of flow improvers, which is publicly available on the AGQM website www.agqm‑biodiesel.com.