MAPOSSA, A. B.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/3467977920944696; MAPOSSA, António Benjamim.
Resumen:
The search for clean fuels has resulted in the development of research for the
processing of fats and oils mainly consisting of fatty acids, high-energy power which
can be converted to esters (biodiesel) by trans-esterification reactions and
esterification with homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous and enzyme. The
problems identified with the use of esterification with homogeneous catalysis can be
minimized by esterification with heterogeneous catalysis that seeks to improve the
effectiveness of the production of biodiesel. In this study the heterogeneous catalyst
developed it is itself known as ferrites which are ferromagnetic materials that have
been the subject of numerous scientific studies due to their magnetic properties,
chemical and thermal stability. Therefore, an application that has shown promise for
these materials is the catalysis for biodiesel. Based on this background the present
study concerns itself to synthesize nanoferrites Ni1-xZnxFe2O4 (x = 0.0; 0.3; 0.5; 0.7
and 1.0 mol of Zn2+) by combustion reaction to evaluate the influence of replacement
of the Ni2+ions by Zn2+ions in the structure, morphology, and catalytic activity in
soybean oil esterification reactions in the presence of methanol. In order to find out
what was really happening, during the research the time measurement and flame
temperature and the resulting product was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray
fluorescence energy dispersive, textural analysis by N2 adsorption spectroscopy in
the infrared Fourier transform, particle size distribution, density, scanning electron
microscopy, thermal analysis and magnetic measurements. The biodiesel obtained
was analysed by a gas chromatograph. It was noticed that, an investigation of the
dependence of morphology, magnetism, acidity and catalytic activity of the
nanocatalyst were evaluated according to the Zn2+content. The findings reflected
that, the increase of the Zn2+content caused changes in the structure, morphology,
magnetism, acidity and zeta potential of the samples, which contributed significantly
to the increase in the catalytic conversion, which ranged from 49.08% to 99.06%. It
was found out that Ni1-xZnxFe2O4 nanocatalysts are promising materials for use in
the esterification reaction for biodiesel production.