engleski

Physical or Chemical Deacidification, that is the Question

To produce biodiesel from waste oils and fats by alkali catalyzed transesterification, few pretreatment steps must be incorporated in the production line. These low quality feedstocks contain water, solid particles and free fatty acids (FFA) that hinder conversion of oil/fat to biodiesel. Water can easily be removed by heating and solid particles by filtration. To reduce FFA content in oil/fat physical or chemical methods can be used. Physical deacidification is based on differences in boiling points of oil and FFA, while chemical deacidification is performed by chemical reaction with caustic soda. An alternative physical deacidification method that can be used is solvent extraction with eco- friendly deep eutectic solvents. To answer the title question, waste oils and fats after treatment with alkali deep eutectic solvent based on potassium carbonate were analyzed by means of proton and carbon NMR and FTIR. Used spectroscopic techniques enable differentiation between physical (extraction) and chemical deacidification. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the major process condition that governs the mechanism of deacidification is solvent to oil/fat mass ratio.

deacidification ; deep eutectic solvents ; extraction ; free fatty acids ; feedstocks ; neutralization

nije evidentirano