Estudo experimental e modelagem para o equilíbrio líquido-líquido em sistemas ternários e pseudo-quaternários de biodiesel etílico e metílico de girassol (Helianthus annus L.).

Abstract

The search for alternative sources of energy has been increasingly intense. In this context, it appears the biodiesel, biofuel that has the following characteristics: it emits less pollutant than petroleum diesel, biodegradable, renewable, non-toxic, among others. biodiesel is produced through the transesterification reaction, where vegetable oil or animal fat reacts with short chain alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. Sunflower oil is an oleaginous with potential use for the production of biodiesel, since it can be planted in the Brazilian Northeast during the rainy season. After the transesterification reaction, the reaction product contains impurities that need to be removed and, for this, the wash and purification of the reaction product must be carried out. To carry out the washing and the purification it is necessary to know the liquid-liquid equilibrium of mixtures formed by water, glycerine, biodiesel and alcohol. And for that, it may be necessary to have possession of the thermodynamic data. The objective of this work is to perform the thermodynamic study on the phase equilibrium of ternary systems (sunflower biodiesel - alcohol - glycerin) and pseudo - quaternaries (sunflower biodiesel - glycerine - water / diluted acid). The Gibbs energy minimization method was used at constants temperature and pressure. To represent the phases formed in each system, the UNIQUAC model was used. The parameters of binary interaction between the compounds were estimated using the least squares method. The ternary system formed by sunflower methyl biodiesel - methanol - glycerin was analyzed at 25ºC, 35ºC and 45ºC and it was observed that the effect of the temperature was not very expressive, with a small reduction of the region of immiscibility at 45ºC. We studied the pseudo quaternary systems formed by sunflower methyl biodiesel - methanol - glycerol - distilled water / diluted sulfuric acid, the ternary l system of ethyl biodiesel of sunflower - ethanol – glycerin and also the pseudo - quaternary systems formed by sunflower ethyl biodiesel - ethanol - glycerin - distilled water / diluted sulfuric acid. In all pseudo-quaternary systems it was observed that the presence of diluted water / diluted acid: increases the region of phase separation, with no significant change in the behavior of the curve by increasing the amount of distilled water / diluted acid from 50% to 75% relative to the glycerol mass; and decreases the solubility of biodiesel in the rich phase at glycerin + distilled water / dilute acid. In the thermodynamic modeling of the LLE, the experimental data were compared with the values calculated by the UNIQUAC model, where a good agreement was obtained between the experimental data and the calculated values, since the largest deviation was 0.27%. This shows that, in the LLE study of the analyzed systems, the calculated parameters can be used. It was observed that the use of the UNIQUAC model for such systems is satisfactory.