Biodiesel obtido a partir do óleo de soja e de algodão utilizando argila atapulgita.

Abstract

Studies indicate that the clay materials have great potential for use in catalysis, when subjected to certain chemical or physical treatments, these materials make catalysts with high acidity, high surface area and high porosity, but in its natural form do not exhibit catalytic properties practically significant. Some clays, for example attapulgite, in its natural form exhibit a high number of sites for adsorption, due to the large surface area and a high power for ion exchange from a fibrous structure and the presence of channels. By presenting these features the attapulgite clay demonstrates potential in the catalytic process which can be applied as heterogeneous catalysts for obtaining biodiesel. Among its advantages stand out: the abundance in the environment, versatility, low cost and reuse. In turn, biodiesel is an alternative to petroleum diesel, possessing characteristics favorable to consumption to be derived from clean and renewable sources, the production of this biofuel comes from esterification or transesterification reaction from the raw material in the presence of monoalcohol in the presence of a catalyst obtaining characteristics similar to petroleum diesel. The present research aims to produce biodiesel using the transesterification reaction through the route with ethyl soybean oil and cotton through the catalyst clay, attapulgite, in its natural form and after thermal and chemical treatments. The clay materials were characterized by the techniques of X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy in the region of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with the purpose of analyzing the structure, chemical composition and morphology in its natural form and after chemical modifications. The results have proved the efficiency of these processes for impregnation and acidification. Later characterizations, the efficiency of the catalysts was evaluated in the transesterification of soybean oil and cotton, using three different systems: System 1-batch reactor with autogenous pressure system, 2 - batch reactor with controlled pressure and agitation system, 3 - Reactor Parr 4842, from oil ratio: 1:12 alcohol, at temperature 200 ° C for a period of 4 hours. The attapulgite acid impregnated catalyst showed the best catalytic potential for the three systems. The product obtained by reactional tests was characterized by means of parameters of kinematic viscosity and ester conversion. Of the three systems, the Panreactor showed the best conversion yield in ester, about 82%, and kinematic viscosity of 7.75 mm 2 / s for soybean oil.