Co-processing lard soybean oil over Ca-based catalysts to greener biodiesel

• Autor(a) principal: Soares Dias, A. P.
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Catarino, Mónica, Gomes, João
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/13245
• topic: Biodiesel; Catalysis; Renewable energy; Sustainability

Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) were produced from lard/soybean oil (SBO) mixtures using a calcium-based heterogeneous catalyst. The green catalyst was prepared by scallop shell calcination at a relatively low temperature (800 degrees C) to minimize energy consumption. Images from Scanning Electron Microscopy showed agglomerates of a few tens micrometers with rhombohedral calcite crystallites studded with lime. X-ray diffractogram of fresh catalyst presented overlapped patterns of calcite and lime In tested conditions (methanol reflux temperature, 5% (fat mass basis), methanol fat = 12 molar ratio, and 150 min), the FAME yield reached 95% (mass) with SBO. However, only 75% FAME yield was obtained from pure lard since the active sites of the catalyst were partially neutralized by lard acidity. Co-processing lard/SBO mixtures attenuated the undesirable fat acidity drawback allowing FAME yields around 90% for mixtures containing less than 50% (mass) of lard. The low-grade fat content of the processed mixture showed no impact on the glycerin quality. Co-processing lard/SBO is a smart strategy to overcome the low-grade fats acidity in biodiesel production process thus providing a more sustainable biodiesel production route.