Resumo

GARCIA-COTA, T. del N. J. et al. Purificación de biodiesel obtenido de aceite de ricinus. Superf. vacío [online]. 2009, vol.22, n.3, pp.20-23. ISSN 1665-3521.

Castor oil has shown potential as raw material for biodiesel production. Nevertheless, the hydroxyl group present in ricinoleic acid structure provides special characteristics to castor oil and its derivatives. For this reason, the phase separation between biodiesel and glycerin (produced during the transesterification reaction) is not a spontaneous process. In this work is reported the experimental methodology developed for solving the problem of purification. It was found that the best method to achieve phase separation is to add glycerin to the product mixture. During the experiments, a qualitative analysis was performed on the sample using mid-infrared spectroscopy (IR), the results demonstrated the presence of glycerin, biodiesel and saponified products.

Palavras-chave : Biodiesel; Castor oil; Removal of glycerin; Purification.