Avaliação da biodegradabilidade das águas de lavagem provenientes da etapa de purificação do biodiesel produzido com óleo extraído das vísceras de tilápia

Abstract

In order to prevent the discharge of tilapia offal into the soil and waters of the Castanhão Weir, in in northeastern Brazil, Ceará State, and avoiding possible environmental impacts, it has been examined the feasibility of biodiesel production, generated from renewable energy sources, whose raw material can come from animal or plants. Based on this, the goal of this study was to evaluate the biodegradability of washing waters, an effluent with high load of organic matter, generated in the step of biodiesel purification. The results evidenced that despite washing waters have had compounds with difficult degradation, such as oils and other compounds derived from the products and reagents used, there are executable means to treat these effluents. The parameters selected to quantify the organic matter content were the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and the ratio between them to assess the biodegradability. Physical and chemical analyses employed for characterization have followed the procedures as described in (APHA, 2005). This research was developed at the Laboratory of References in Biofuels (LARBIO) of the Foundation Center for Industrial Technology of the Ceará State (NUTEC).