Abstract
Fatty acid esters (methyl and ethyl) prepared from babassu nut oil were blended with the respective esters from soybean oil. These binary blends (babassu:soybean) were made in proportions of 10:90, 20:80, 30:70, 40:60, and 50:50 (vol%). The ester content of all the blends was higher than 96.5%, which is the minimum value required by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis, ANP). The thermal properties of the babassu, soybean and binary mixtures of esters were investigated by thermogravimetry-differential thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal stability of the blended biodiesels decreased as the total contents of the babassu esters increased. From the experiments it was found that babassu methanol biodiesel is stable up to 49.6 oC and the ethanol biodiesel is stable up to 53.7 oC in air. The methyl esters blends were thermally stable up to 83.2 and 56.8 oC, for 90:10 and 50:50 blends (soybean:babassu), respectively. The ethyl ester blends presented values of temperature ranges somewhat higher than the methyl esters, such as 85.2 and 64.5 oC for 90:10 and 50:50 blends, respectively. The esters from babassu oil have satisfactory performance at low temperatures with respect to the point of crystallization, which were below –9.8 oC for ethylic esters and –8.5 oC for methylic esters. A good correlation between the crystallization onset temperature and the increase in the concentration of the babassu oil esters was obtained in the mixtures analyses. In the 50:50 combination (babassu:soybean), the crystallization onset temperature were –6.73 and –9.12 oC for methyl and ethyl esters, respectively.
Highlights
The use of edible vegetable oils for the production of biodiesel has generated great questions because they compete in agriculture with food crops.[1,2] Many studies have reported that the use of non-edible oils may contribute to reduce biodiesel production issues related to the use of edible vegetable oils.[3]
This work showed that the ethyl and methyl esters obtained from babassu oil have important thermal properties that contribute to the use as fuel
The results revealed that the esters of babassu oil have a lower thermal stability when compared to soybean oil, which is the result of their chemical composition which is formed by saturated esters of low molecular weight
Summary
The use of edible vegetable oils for the production of biodiesel has generated great questions because they compete in agriculture with food crops.[1,2] Many studies have reported that the use of non-edible oils may contribute to reduce biodiesel production issues related to the use of edible vegetable oils.[3]. Methyl and ethyl esters from seed oil of babassu were synthesized and their thermo-oxidative stabilities were investigated using TGA and DTG, under synthetic air atmosphere at 10 °C min−1 heat rate. Blends of esters from babassu and soybean oils were prepared and their low temperature properties were investigated by DSC. Thermal Properties of the Blends of Methyl and Ethyl Esters Prepared from Babassu and Soybean Oils J. The DSC curves were obtained in a calorimeter model DSC Q20 with the RCS90 coupled to a cooling system, both from TA Instruments For such analyses, the sample masses were used ranging from 4.00-4.50 mg using aluminum crucibles (Tzero standard) as support and reference, rate of heating/cooling of 10 °C min-1, cycle heating followed by cooling to temperatures between –80 and 30 °C, under inert nitrogen atmosphere (N2) with a flow of 50 mL min‐1. The data were processed with the help of Universal Analyses 2000 software version 3.7A (TA Instruments)
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