Indian-Nut (Aleurites Moluccana) and Tucum (Astrocaryum Vulgare), Non Agricultural Sources for Niodiesel Production Using Ethanol: Composition, Characterization and Optimization of the Reactional Production Conditions

Abstract

Indian-nut (Aleurites moluccana) and tucum (Astrocaryum vulgare) are oleaginous non eatable that present excellent oil content (about 60% and 30%, respectively) compared to soy bean grains (20%). Biodiesel production from these oils, using bioethanol as reactant, is an alternative for renewable energy source. In this paper, experimental design was used to determine the influence of these different kinds of oils on the transesterification reaction in order to evaluate the viability of biodiesel production process using ethanol as reactant. The most influential variables on the transesterification reaction yield were: alcohol to oil molar ratio, mass of catalyst, temperature and reaction time. In this paper, the variables was operated using experimental design with central composite. Compositional difference between both tucum and Aleurites oil has been verified by 1 H-NMR and GC analysis. Physicochemical properties presented by Aleurites biodiesel are in accordance with ANP Regulation n. 07. On the other hand, the same conditions were not adequate to achieve a high transesterification yield from handmade Astrocaryum oil. In this case, better conditions were only obtained from refined oil. The reactional conditions optimized based on a kind of oil sometimes can't be suitable for any biodiesel production reaction.