Produção de biodiesel em reator de fluxo contínuo a partir do óleo de algodão em condições supercríticas

Abstract

In the global energy context, biodiesel has emerged as an important source of renewable energy, mainly due to its ease of production and the variety of raw material available worldwide. Specifically in Brazil, the biodiesel industry has shown significant production growth, due to the federal laws that require the mixing of B100 (biodiesel) with fossil diesel. Considering the importance of this industry to Brazil, this work sought to evaluate the potential of cotton seed oil for the production of biodiesel from three techniques: transesterification using ethanol, interesterification using methyl acetate and interesterification with methyl acetate and addition of aqueous acetic acid solution. The reactions occurred under supercritical conditions in a continuous flow tubular reactor with a volume of 15 mL. The maximum yield obtained by transesterification was 75.05%, at 150 and 200 bar pressure, 375 °C, 1:40 oil/ethanol molar ratio, and spatial times 40 min (150 bar) and 30 min (200 bar). In the other method, using methyl acetate, the highest yield was 99.51% (methyl esters of fatty acids+ triacetin) obtained in 35 min, oil/methyl acetate ratio 1:3, pressure 200 bar and 350 °C, using 20%, by mass, of aqueous acetic acid solution with a concentration of 26%. High values of biodiesel decomposition were observed in both routes due to the high concentrations of polyunsaturated triglycerides in the oil and the severe process conditions.