(671e) Non-Conventional Method for Fatty Acids Production to Be Used As Raw Material for the Biodiesel Production

Fatty acids are long chain carboxylic acids. In the literature there are some methodologies for the production of these fatty acids, the reaction of chemical hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis and saponification-acid hydrolysis, but the study of the production of fatty acids is very little known. This work consists  to study the production of fatty acids in a chemical reactor pressurized to assess their reaction conditions making the statistical analysis of the independent variables of the process. The hydrolysis reactions were performed in a chemical reactorpressurization of 400 mL. The weight ratios of reagents KOH/oil (0.1 - 0.3 m/m) and ethanol/oil (0.8 - 2.4 m/m) and the temperature of the hydrolysis reactions (80 - 160°C) was defined from experimental design. The reaction was then monitored for 45 minutes. The acid hydrolysis was performed by diluting the product of step saponification with an addition of a solution of sulfuric acid and the conversion was calculated by determination the acid value. Conversion of 95.6% was obtained, ie to 0.3 w/w of KOH/oil, 2.4 w/w ethanol/oil at 80°C. The region of the optimization processshowed 98.7% conversion, using 0.3 w/w of KOH/oil and 1.6 w/w ethanol/oil, 100°C and 300 rpm. Among the variables studied, the weight ratio ethanol/oil was not significant for the 95% significance level. Studies to minimize/replace of ethanol by water is being carried out in order to minimize the operating cost. The process for production of fatty acids from the saponification reaction of residual oils followed by acid hydrolysis in a chemical reactor high pressure exceeded expectations, yielding material with conversions above 95%, showing that it is possible to obtain raw material low added value for the production of biodiesel.