Estudo do processo enzimático de produção de biodiesel a partir de óleos e gorduras residuais de fritura

Abstract

The use of biodiesel as a fuel has showed a high potential all over the world. In spite of the possible environmental benefits of the vegetable oil use to conversion into biodiesel as a substitute for the diesel, barrels in the economic and ethic points of view, as soil and water use in competition with food cultures and to other technical purposes, motivated the search of alternative raw material for biodiesel production. Among the studied alternatives, the reutilization of residual animal and vegetable oils and fats from food frying processes has shown to be attractive, because the consumption of fried and pre fried food has increased in the last years, causing rise in production of OGRF´s ( Fried Residual Fats and Oils). In this work transesterification reactions of vegetables oils and fats used in frying processes was studied for biodiesel production with immobilized lipases. The samples of OGRF´s were collected in commercial establishments in Maceió city. These samples were characterized concerning its acidity index, iodine index, cinematic viscosity, specific mass, fat acid composition. A study on temperature in which the lipase (Novozym 435) presents better enzymatic activity, in the range between 40-60ºC, was carried out. The alcoholysis reaction was catalyzed by immobilized commercial lipase Novozym 435, the experiments were done according to an factorial experimental design 24-1 where the variables study were: temperature (40-60°C), reaction time (24-72h), enzyme concentration (5-10%) and oil-ethanol rate (1:3-1:9). The determination of yield in ethyl esters (biodiesel) was accomplished by gas chromatography. Among these results, the higher yield was obtained in higher conditions of temperature, enzyme concentration, reaction time and oil: ethanol rate.