Characterization of free fatty acid from waste oil. Study of the esterification reaction over solid catalyst

OMBERG, K.; ASKIVG, G.; TREBOSTAD, M.; OMBERG, O.; J.M. MARCHETTI

Congreso; XV Latin American Congress and Exhibition on Fats and Oils.; 2013

The production of biodiesel is gaining more and more relevance due to the environmental benefits that has been shown, such as reduction on the CO emissions, as well as a decrease on the sulfur compounds from exhaust emissions; also, the CO2 balance is closer to zero if compared with petroleum fuels.A physical characterization of different waste oils (based on the fatty aicds within) has been done in order to seek for a new alternative raw material. Work on the amount of solid matter, water content and free fatty acid was carried out. The results shows that the amount of fatty acid was higher than the required for a refine oil but in the range of a crude oil.    Some of the raw materials were tested using different solid catalyst, such as solid resins, enzymes and pellets. The reaction was done with fixed operation conditions, such as temperature, pressure, concentration, amount of catalyst, etc. The results show that these methods and new catalysts are a suitable alternative to carry on the esterification reaction with good results. This technology could be implemented as a pretreatment of a conventional biodiesel production plant.