Author(s): Sebadelhe, Cláudia Sofia Moutinho
Date: 2008
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/510
Origin: Repositório da UTL
Subject(s): biodiesel; azeite; óleo de bagaço de azeitona; transesterificação; esterificação ácida; olive oil; crude olive pomace oil; transesterification; acid catalysed esterification
Mestrado em Olivicultura, Azeite e Azeitona de mesa - Instituto Superior de Agronomia
The olive oil sector, with a strong tradition in Portugal, can be a source of raw materials for biodiesel production. The olives infected by plages and diseases, will generate lampante virgin olive oil without food quality and the crude olive pomace oil extracted from the pomace is not appropriate for food consumption. The purpose of the present investigation was to study the biodiesel production from lampante virgin olive oil and crude olive pomace oil with acid values much higher than 1 %. In this study, two different processes for biodiesel production were tested and compared with these raw materials. One, by using the traditional alkaline catalyzed transesterification process, the other by a two step process using acid catalyzed esterification followed by alkaline catalyzed transesterification. The acid catalyzed esterification process was optimized by application the response surface methodology. The highest yields of fatty acid methyl esters were obtained by the two step process. The properties of the biodiesel obtained from both raw materials were determined and most of the parameters were in accordance to the specifications of biodiesel standard. Only the oxidative stability did not reach the minimum value established in these specifications.
