Obtenção de biodiesel a partir da mistura dos óleos de milho e algodão usando catalisador homogêneo e heterogêneo.

Abstract

Most of the world energy consumption derives from oil, coal and natural gas. The shortage of the energy sources, especially the energy from fóssil fuels, and moreover the impossibility of its renewal has motivated the development of technologies that allow the usage of renewable energy sources. Biodiesel is biodegradable, renewable and it obeys the cycle of carbon, it is defined as a blend of mono-alkyl esters of fatty acids derived from renewable sources, as vegetable oils and animal fats. It can be obtained by means of a transesterification process, in which the transformation of triacylglycerides into smaller molecules of fatty acid esters takes place, and it displays physical and chemical characteristics similar to the ones of a fóssil fuelderived diesel oil. This paper presents the production of biodiesel from a mixture of corn and cotton oils transesterified with homogeneous (KOH) and heterogeneous (MCM-41 and 1% Mo/MCM-41) catalysts. The mixture of vegetable oils and the ethanol biodiesel were characterized in terms of physical and chemical properties, rheology, gas chromatography (GC), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and thermal analysis (TG). The results showed that the homogeneous route promoted a 81,23% conversion into ethyl esters conversely, the heterogeneous route did not show satisfactory results, as a the high levei of triacylglycerides was observed. The infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography analyses were used for the chemical analysis of the products. In thermogravimetric analyses, it was observed that the Biodiesel samples presented a lower initial decomposition temperature than that of the vegetable oil, suggesting that these samples are more volatile than the oil and closer to diesel.