Estudo do aproveitamento do resíduo da gordura de cupuaçu para biodiesel

Abstract

The waste from the extraction of cupuaçu fat obtained from the company Cupuama (Careiro Castanho - AM) was characterized for application as raw material for biodiesel by the alternative method hydroesterification. The charatezation of cupuaçu fatty waste was perfomed by gas chromatography (CG-FID) and by means of physic-chemical parameters such as index of acidity, peroxide and iodine. The waste showed as major fatty acid the palmitic acid (43.60 %) and already had the percentage of free acids rather high (70.32 % of FFA). For processing the waste in the esterification step were employed homogeneous catalysts, HCl and H2SO4, and the heterogeneous catalyst sulfated zirconia. This catalyst was prepared by two methods, called solvent-free method and conventional method, the solids were characterized by IR, XRD, TG/DTG and the method of adsorption of gaseous pyridine to assess the acidity of the material. In homogeneous catalysis, the sulfuric acid had the best performance, reaching yield of 94.35 % in 10 hours of reaction. Among the solid catalysts, the one prepared by the solvent free-method (ZrS) was the one who was more active in esterification, therefore, performed a kinetic study of the esterification reaction using ZrS at temperatures of 80, 100, 120 and 140 oC in the presence of methanol and ethanol alcohols in the reactor.