Soybean and babassu biodiesel production: a laboratory scale study and an exergy analysis approach

Résumé

The emission of gases from the fleet of vehicles is one of the main sources of the environmental impact of the planet. Reversing this scenario, environmental awareness and a search for alternative sources of energy has been growing exponentially in recent years. In this context, the production of biofuels presents itself as an alternative for the lowest environmental impact, energy, and economy, with emphasis on biodiesel. The scale of production of this biofuel, the options related to the raw materials and their conditions are intertwined with the energy and exergetic efficiencies of the process. Therefore, no work was constructed as an analysis of the biodiesel production processes of soybeans and babassu, in which they were conducted on a laboratory scale. According to the results, the production of soybean biodiesel arose in exergetic efficiency of 73.25% and the production of biodiesel from babassu of 74.72%.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Babassu oil, Soybean oil, Exergy, Transesterification.