Monitoring of acylglycerides in the biodiesel production process

Abstract

The characteristics of the biodiesel result from the chemical profile present in the raw material (fatty acids) and transformations that occurred in the stages of the production process of this biofuel. In this sense, there must be a wide control of chemical components present in this renewable fuel that directly impact the performance of the finished final product. Thus, with the possession of valuable information about the compounds of interest, it is possible to select the raw materials and suppliers, to better plan the process steps and chemical and physical transformations, in addition to optimizing the prodution, perfecting the methods used with information of great relevance for the formulation of a high quality and affordable product. Therefore, in this work, the mono, di, tri-glycerol and glycerol signals were identified and quantified at some points in the biodiesel process. Therefore, in this work, the signs of mono, di, triacliglycerides and free glycerol were identified and quantified at some points in the biodiesel synthesis process. The importance of monitoring these compounds illustrates how ¹H-NMR can be a powerful tool in decision making, making it very informative when combined with the productive sector, in addition to being a simple method that does not require prior treatment and derivatization to perform numerous analyzes.