Avaliação de catalisador a base de conchas de ostras para a produção de biodiesel utilizando planejamento fatorial

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel derived from vegetable oils or animal fat that can replace entirely or partially the diesel derived from oil. It has some advantages compared to fossil diesel, such as biodegradability and non-toxicity. The transesterification reaction with a short chain alcohol and basic catalyst is the most usual form of this fuel production. Optimize the proportion ratio of catalyst and alcohol used in the reaction is important from a technical and economic point of view, making it possible to identify the minimum amounts necessary to obtain a final product with high ester content. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biodiesel production process, conducting a study of the process variables that influence the transesterification of sunfloweroil using a basic heterogeneous catalyst obtained from flour of oyster shells in order to obtain the conditions operations leading to a higher conversion to biodiesel. The transesterification reactions of sunfloweroil with methanol were performed in a batch reactor at a temperature of 65 °C for 5 hours. The experiments were performed according to the experimental planning 32 with additional three central points, resulting in 12 experiments. The variables studied were: catalyst concentration (1%, 2%, 3%), molar ratio of oil: methanol (1:06, 1:09, 1:12). The optimized conditions of reaction were XRM(1:12 mol: mol), XCAT(2% wt%.) with production of 99.99% (± 0.04 wt) methyl sunflower biodiesel. In the present work, the evaluation parameter was the conversion into biodiesel, determined by gas chromatography.