Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

With the increase in the interest about renewable fuel, the researches about more efficient methods of reaction had been increasing as well. Nowadays, the biodiesel is synthesized by the reaction between soy oil and methanol with homogeneous catalyst. This route generates a high amount of wastewater in addition the glycerin is impure which ends up being aggregate to the wastewater because the price of purification is higher than the pure glycerin. An alternative is the use of heterogeneous catalyst because they don?t generate wastewater and the byproduct is pure glycerin. The present work, focus in the synthesis of nanoparticulated γ -alumina doped with yttrium as heterogeneous catalyst in the synthesis of biodiesel. The doping altered the characteristics of the material, like the surface area 69.54m2/g to 226.13m2/g and density 4g/cm3 to 2.5g/cm3. The doped γ -alumina powder was compressed and it was used a heterocoagulation method to create a porous material to increase the contact area of the pellet. The catalyst worked in the synthesis of biodiesel, High-performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) indicated the presence of components of the biodiesel, even with the low yield.

Biography

Andreia de Araújo Morandim-Giannetti graduated in Bachelor of Technology Chemistry from the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (1997) and PhD in Chemistry from the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (2004). He is currently full-time at Centro Universitário da FEI (SBC). He has experience in the field of chemistry and biotechnology.