Production of Biodiesel with Seed Soybean and Supercritical Ethanol

Abstract

This paper presents a study of biodiesel production by a non-catalytical process. The innovation in this study is the use of novel materials for production: seed soybean (Glycine Max) “in natura” and ethanol in a supercritical state. To conduct the experiments, a bench reactor with a capacity of 150 mL, resistant to pressure of up to 300 bar and temperature of 350 ° C was developed. The fractional factorial experimental design ( ) was used to evaluate the temperature, seed granulometry, molar ratio ethanol/oil and water percent of the mixture. The best yield observed was that of 94.07%, 10 minutes after the reactor entered a supercritical condition. Significant effects on seed granulometry, molar ratio ethanol, oil and temperature were verified. From the proposed process, biodiesel and toasted soybean seed were obtained. To purify the biodiesel sample it was necessary to use ultra-centrifugation to separate seed particles, and rotoevaporation to separate the fatty acid ethyl ester and unreacted ethanol. The chemical analyses were conducted directly by gas chromatography. The yield was calculated in accordance with concentrations obtained in the chromatographic analysis and seed mass of the experiment. Also checked was the presence of palmitate esters, stearate, oleate, linoleate and linolenate. By analyzing the est er composition it was possible to assess whether a good quality biodiesel was available. The roasted soybean seeds obtained after the reaction showed a calorific potential of 2203.17 kcal/kg and also be used as fuel.