Fast pyrolysis of vegetable oils and residues generates bio-oil (BO), a renewable hydrocarbon source with high acidity that limits its direct use in refineries. In this study, BOs were produced from refined soybean oil (RSO) and waste cooking oil (WCO) at 525 degrees C in a continuous bench-scale pyrolysis at 525 degrees C, with a 390 +/- 8 g h-1 feed rate, under steady-state conditions. The resulting bio-oils exhibited high acidity (acid index of 145 and 127 mg KOH g-1, respectively) and elevated olefinic and oxygen contents, making them corrosive and unsuitable for co-refining with petroleum. To reduce acidity, ethyl esterification was performed using lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB), using a Box-Behnken 33 factorial design. Variables included temperature (40-60 degrees C), bio-oil:ethanol mass ratio (1:1-1:5), and catalyst concentration (3-10% w/w). The acid index was reduced by up to 76%, with optimal conditions (62 degrees C, 1:1 mass ratio, 11% CALB) yielding a final value of 28 mg KOH g-1. Similar reductions were obtained for waste cooking oil bio-oil, confirming robustness across feedstocks. CALB retained over 70% activity after three cycles, demonstrating stability. This enzymatic esterification process shows strong potential for lowering bio-oil acidity, enabling integration into petroleum refineries, diversifying feedstocks, and advancing renewable fuel production.

Biomass has been investigated in recent years as an alternative source for fuel production. The use of triglyceride biomass is highlighted and, from the thermal cracking process, solid, liquid and gaseous products with energetic potential are generated. The liquid product, called bio-oil, has characteristics similar those of fossil fuels. Its composition is mainly based on hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids, and the second group generates a limiting characteristic in its processing, refining and use as fuel, increasing the acidity of bio-oil. In this work, bio-oil produced from commercial soybean oil was used in a thermal cracking process at 525ºC. The objective was to carry out ethyl esterification reactions via enzymatic catalysis in order to reduce the acidity index of the crude bio-oil. All reactions were carried out at 40ºC to avoid enzyme deactivation and different conditions of type and amount of catalyst, alcohol mass ratio and reaction time were evaluated. The best result was obtained after 6 hours of reaction with 60% acidity reduction, using Novozym 435 lipase as a catalyst at a concentration of 5% in relation to the substrate mass and 1:3 mass ratio.

O avanço científico-tecnológico no Brasil e no mundo aumenta a demanda por mão de obra qualificada nas áreas das ciências exatas e engenharias. No entanto, a procura por estes cursos nos vestibulares tem reduzido significativamente, além da desistência de estudantes nos primeiros anos dos cursos de engenharia. Em vista disto, este trabalho teve como objetivo estreitar relações entre os cursos de engenharia com o ensino fundamental, procurando despertar o interesse dos estudantes pelas engenharias. As atividades realizadas compreenderam palestras a respeito dos cursos de Engenharia Química, Engenharia de Alimentos e Engenharia Florestal da Universidade Regional de Blumenau em uma escola municipal de Blumenau-SC, oficinas na universidade e desenvolvimento de projetos inovadores com aplicação de conhecimentos básicos de ciências e matemática. O conjunto de procedimentos, experimentos e atividades geradas enfatizou a inserção econômica e social e o papel importante que a engenharia possui no setor industrial e de serviços. A participação dos jovens nestas atividades facilitou o conhecimento sobre o que é realizado dentro do ambiente universitário e aumentou o interesse em ingressar em algum curso superior futuramente.

With the breakdown of ricinoleic acid through the cracking technique, either in the thermal or thermo-catalytic form, compounds of interest for green chemistry, such as heptaldehyde and undecylenic acid, can be obtained. These supplies are envisioned since they are building block chemicals. Therefore, the influence of operational conditions on the cracking process was evaluated using a 2 3 experimental design, including temperature, water, and catalyst, with the aim of improving the yield of heptaldehyde and undecylenic acid supplies from castor oil, inedible oil. The operating conditions used in the cracking process were: temperature of 500, 525, and 550 & DEG;C, water fractions of zero, 12.5%, and 25%, and catalyst fractions of benzoyl peroxide of zero, 0.55%, and 1.1%. The analysis suggests that the central point utilizing thermo-catalytic cracking demonstrates superior operational conditions as they generate an average of 78.5% bio-oil, 21.97% heptaldehyde, and 17.25% undecylenic acid, with 12.5% water and 0.55% catalyst at a temperature of 525 & DEG;C.

Using natural fibers in composites presents a wide range of applications, from furniture to airplanes. In polymeric composite, the use of fiber is to boost strength and stiffness. However, this material presents low mechanical properties compared to virgin polymers due to hydrophilic nature of the fiber and hydrophobic nature of the polymer. It can result in weak bonding matrix/fiber which may cause incompatibility problem in bonding fibers with most of the polymer matrices. To achieve compatibility between surfaces there is a need to modify them, and one alternative is using coupling agents. Maleated coupling agents stand out as option, but their source is petroleum-derived polyolefin. Researchers have been seeking for more environmentally friendly alternatives to replace these materials. Therefore, this work aims to bring a comprehensive review of the mechanical behavior of maleated and ecological coupling agents. Based on the literature, resistance, flexural, and tensile strength were properties discussed.

This work evaluated the process for heptaldehyde, undecylenic acid, and methyl undecenoate production from castor oil, methyl ester of castor oil, and ricinoleic acid. Experiments were performed in a continuous pilot-plant scale pyrolysis reactor. Those are very important green chemical products that the thermal cracking of castor oil might produce. Transesterification of castor oil produces methyl ricinoleate, and its thermal cracking generates methyl undecenoate and heptaldehyde. The pyrolysis temperatures tested were 530?C, 545?C, 560?C, and 575?C, with residence time from 17 s to 32 s and mass flow at 400 g/h of the mixture of materials with 25% distilled water. It was observed that the temperature influenced the bio-oil yield in different degree for each material. The bio-oil was characterized by iodine index, acid number, and mass, and the contents of its compounds were obtained by GC-FID chromatography. The best result for the undecylenic acid mass yield of the desired compounds occurred at 530?C, achieving 17.8% from ricinoleic acid and 16.5% from castor oil. For the heptaldehyde, the highest production was also obtained at 530?C, with a value of 20.7% from methyl ester and 15.2% from ricinoleic acid.

Biofuels have been occupying space in the fuel market as a renewable substitute for petrol fuels. The thermal and/or thermo-catalytic cracking using triglyceride biomass stands out among the biofuel production processes. Cracking processes result in the production of coke, bio-oil and non-condensable gases. The quantification of each product in a cracking process is directly linked to operational conditions. This project focuses on the use of residual fat from the poultry processing industry, converting it into biofuel so that it can be used in the industry itself as a source of energy. The quality of the products generated are linked to the raw material used, as well as the conditions used in the cracking process. One way to improve the characteristics of the bio-oil produced can be achieved with the use of a catalyst together with thermal cracking. The literature has shown that in thermo-catalytic cracking, there is lower yield in bio-oil, but with some properties, such as acidity and viscosity closer to the value required by legislation for use in engines. This project aims to add value to an industrial waste, by converting this waste into biofuel using thermo-catalytic cracking, with the possibility of being used in the industry itself, as well as investigating the optimization of the process to improve the quality of bio-oil. The yield of the liquid fraction was around 67 % with an acid value of 58.74 mg KOH/g sample.

Pepper is a functional food due to is capsaicin or piperine, minerals, vitamins, phenolic acids and flavonoids. Peppers are classified according to their characteristics, such as stinging, color, size and flavor. The consumption of peppers is related pungency sensation and to the benefits to human health, as they are a source of vitamins and have nutritional and antioxidant properties that can have a significant impact on diseases. Pepper crops present problems, as pests and irrigation, which are frequently reported. The objective of this work was to report the panorama of the chili pepper sauce production process, finding regarding beneficial on properties of pepper and discuss its several forms of sold, pepper cultivation and beneficial effects and disadvantage of pepper consume.

With increasing consumer demand for natural food products, including food bioaromas, efforts to identify biotechnological interventions for their production have increased. Microalgae have been used in food, as well as for extraction of compounds, however, their use has been little explored to obtain bioaromas. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the resulting bioaromas from ethylic rout of biomass from Spirulina sp. First, the cultivation was carried out and the fatty acid profile of the Spirulina sp., Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus biomass was analyzed. The best results were from Spirulina, where its biomass showed the one with the highest lipid index, in addition to the greater diversity of fatty acids. The acidity index, where 103.99 mg KOH/g which obtained at 72 h hydrolysis. With the best hydrolysis condition, enzymatic esterification was carried out where fruity aroma esters, such as diethyl succinate (15.49%), ethyl palmitate (8.45%), D-limonene (2.82%), ethyl butanoate (1.41%) and ethyl phenylacetate (1.41%) were obtained. Through this study it was possible to verify the potential use of Spirulina to obtain esters with aromatic properties for commercial applications and the importance of carrying out further studies on this subject, since depending on the cultivation conditions used to obtain microalgal biomass, higher levels of the compounds may be obtained, as well as an increase in the diversity of compounds obtained.

The growing interest in using recycled and natural materials in the application of new composites in recent years implies ecological, economic and versatility benefits. Wood plastic composite (WPC) are considered very attractive materials, as they allow the use of polymers of recycled or virgin origin, associated with forestry by-products. The present work aims to investigate the influence on the mechanical, thermal and morphological resistance of WPC, using oleic acid and glycerol as renewable coupling agents. Composites were also prepared with a commercial compatibility agent in its formulation - maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) - under the same conditions. The composites were prepared in a single-screw extruder, with fixed contents of 5% sawdust with 95% virgin polymer, of this total, 2% were coupling agents: MAPP, oleic acid or glycerol, according to the desired composition. To be evaluated as changes in mechanical properties, tensile and impact strength tests were performed on specimens obtained through the injection molding process. The fracture surfaces of specimens tested in tensile tests were examined using images generated by scanning electron microscopy. The thermal stability of the composites was also investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The use of glycerol and oleic acid improved the mechanical properties of the composite. An increase in tensile strength is observed when glycerol is added in composite. As for impact strength, the addition of glycerol or oleic acid was around 58% higher in impact strength when compared to without coupling agent. Glycerol and oleic acid are renewable, low-cost alternative to be a potential substitute for the commercial coupling agent MAPP, especially when the main requirement is to obtain better impact resistance properties.

O fortalecimento das relações entre entidades escolares e universidades é benéfico para ambas as partes e também para a comunidade local, que é favorecida pela divulgação do conhecimento científico. A utilização de ações na forma de workshops e conferências que despertem o interesse de alunos da área tecnológica, desde o ensino fundamental, pode levar ao desenvolvimento de competências para a formação do ser cientista. O objetivo deste trabalho foi despertar nos alunos do ensino fundamental o interesse pela área tecnológica, tanto pela instigação quanto pela futura possibilidade de inserção no meio acadêmico. Para tanto, foi promovida a interação de professores, alunos de graduação e pós-graduação dos cursos de Engenharia de Alimentos e Engenharia Química com alunos dos cursos de ensino fundamental da rede municipal. Foram realizadas aulas teóricas e workshops práticos na própria universidade onde se discutiu o conhecimento tecnológico. Após a conclusão dessas ações, foi aplicado um questionário para avaliar a aprovação e o interesse dos alunos. Essas ações fomentaram nos alunos o desejo de vivenciar a universidade, além de servirem também para a troca de saberes pedagógicos e de ensino-aprendizagem entre professores e alunos a nível básico, graduação e pós-graduação.

Lipases are widely used as biocatalysts in the resolution of racemates, where high chemo-, regio- and enantioselectivity are required. In this work, we produced lipases by culturing Rhizopus microsporus in solid-state fermentation. After the fermentation, the solids were dried, producing "Rhizopus microsporus fermented solids" (RMFS). The lipases in RMFS had high activity in the synthesis of ethyl oleate in n-heptane, retaining 100 % activity after 23 successive esterification cycles, each for 4 h at 40 degrees C. In the kinetic resolution of three aromatic secondary alcohols by transesterification with isopropenyl acetate, in n-heptane, RMFS showed preference for the (S)-enantiomers, in other words, an anti-Kazlauskas enantiopreference. The best results were a conversion of 23 % and an enantiomeric ratio (E-SR, i.e. S relative to R) of 26 for resolution of (RS)-1-phenyl-1-ethanol, after 96 h at 40 degrees C. Since it is rare for lipases to have an (S)-enantiopreference, RMFS have the potential as low-cost biocatalysts for the resolution of racemates of secondary alcohols.

An alternative to fossil fuels is the use of triglyceride biomass for conversion to biofuel by the thermal cracking process, also known as pyrolysis. The liquid phase, called bio-oil, has physicochemical properties like petroleum-derived fuels. One of the undesirable characteristics of bio-oil is the high acidity index, due to the presence of short-chain carboxylic acids in its composition. This feature makes refining and use inviable. The objective of this work was to perform esterification reactions using bio-oil, produced from soybean oil pyrolysis already characterized, in order to reduce its acidity index. Besides that, the esterified bio-oil was submitted to different washing experiments to decrease even more the final acidity. For the esterification reaction 25 g of bio-oil was used at a temperature of 64 °C, using from 0.8 to 2.2% sulfuric acid and 0.5 to 99.5% mass ratio of methyl alcohol and bio-oil. The highest acidity index reduction after 20 min was 81.2%, the esterified bio-oil reduced from 129 to 32.4 mg KOH g-1. Esterification reaction followed by washing and neutralization can decrease even more those values and, the acidity index can reach zero.

The global population is estimated to reach 9 billion at 2050; thus, there will be an increase of food demand. In this scenario, edible insects can be considered as an option for both food and supplements source. In this work was evaluated the nutritional aspects of Cladomorphus phyllinum, also known as stick insect. Protein, carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, fatty acids, minerals and ecotoxicity were analyzed. The raw sample had protein, carbohydrate, ester and lipid content of 17.96%, 8.33%, 15.23% and 1.85%, respectively, while the dry sample presented 64.6% protein content. It has been found that the dry stick insect presented the essential amino acids, leucine, isoleucine, valine, lysine, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine and histidine. Oleic acid (57.03%), palmitic acid (15.94%), linoleic acid (13.76%) and stearic acid (10.67%) were also found in dry samples. The micronutrients calcium, magnesium and zinc were the minerals with expressive concentrations. Besides, acute ecotoxicity tests performed with extremely sensitive species, Daphnia magna, Vibrio fischeri and Artemia Salina, revealed no toxicity associated with the Cladomorphus phyllinum. These results obtained in this work indicate that the stick insect can be used as an alternative insect-based protein, minerals, fatty acids and amino source.

Bio-oil produced from triglycerides thermal cracking is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds and is a potentially renewable source for fuel and chemical production. The presence of carboxylic acids results in a high acid index making it difficult to refine and use it as a fossil fuel substitute. This high acidity causes corrosion and may interfere on the final applications. In this work, soybean oil was thermally cracked, and the bio-oil was characterized and submitted to esterification reactions in order to evaluate the effect of temperature and reactants mass ratio. Before esterification, crude bio-oil showed 8.61% of carboxylic acids in GC-MS characterization and an acid index of 133.33 mg KOH/g. The reactions were conducted for 90 min, from 50 to 65 degrees C for methanol and from 60 to 75 degrees C for ethanol, and the bio-oil-alcohol mass ratio from 10:1 to 1:1. Methylic and ethylic esterification at 1:1 mass ratio of bio oil to alcohol at 65 degrees C and 75 degrees C showed decrease of 97.5 and 90.4% in the acid index, reaching values of 3.35 and 12.65 mg KOH/g, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of using esterification in bio-oil to reduce its acidity and improve its quality.

The use of biofuels is increasingly important in order to mitigate the consumption of petroleum and increase the energy use of renewable sources. The estimative is that in 2040 the demand for oil will intensificate by 26% and part of it will have to be supplied by renewable energy. Biofuels offer a reliable alternative and among the process associated to biofuels production, thermal cracking results on a liquid product (bio-oil) with similar characteristics to the fossil fuels, particularly when performed with triglyceride sources (TG). In this sense, the main goal of this work is to propose an alternative sequence of chemical processes aiming to boost an oil refinery chain into a green refinery by producing, co-processing and improving bio-oil characteristics obtained from triglyceride source. Some bio-oil characteristics like density, acidity (AI), iodine index (II), oxygen content (OC), carbon number distribution and chemical compositions are presented. The properties of bio-oil obtained from the thermal cracking of triglycerides might be compared to petroleum and its derivate. Although the characteristics are similar between them, the bio-oil requires upgrading to reduce its high acid index, until achieve levels acceptable for its processing at a refinery. The content of olefins and oxygen might be reduced through hydrotreatment process. The hydrotreatment can promote the saturation of the double bonds and remove the oxygen atoms. The hydrotreatment unit is present in most of the refineries and further investigations are required to evaluate the hydrogen consumption. The proposal of this work is divided in four steps: the first is to produce bio-oil through triglyceride’s thermal cracking in a continuous and steady state regime; the second process is to promote the esterification of bio-oil to reduce its acid index; the third stage is co-processing bio-oil in a distillation unit being fractionated into desired fractions; the fourth step involves hydrotreatment to reduce both iodine index and oxygen content. Thus, the co-processing of bio-oil appears to be a promising approach to increasing the biofuels content in an oil refinery, to reduce sulfur and to maintain the quality parameters of commercial fuels.

Castor oil has been widely used as raw material to obtain compounds such as paints, solvents, rubbers, polyurethane polymers and chemical inputs. Then, one highlighted route is thermal cracking of castor oil to produce bio-oil, mainly composed of heptaldehyde and methyl undecenoate, which are used as precursors of lactones in the food and beverage industry. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the separation heptaldehyde and methyl undecenoate by distillation of bio-oil from thermal cracking of the methyl esters in castor oil (MECO). Distilled fractions were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC). Thus, it was possible to concentrate the fractions of heptaldehyde and methyl undecenoate in a section with a distillation system at atmospheric pressure with a distillation rate of 5.0 mL min(-1) at 270 degrees C, which motivates new researches for up-scaling of the process. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article presents the experimental data on distillation of bio-oil obtained from thermal cracking of a mixture of castor oil and its methyl esters. The interpretation of the data can be found in Menshhein et al. (2019) available on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.04.136. Experiments were carried out using a simple distillation apparatus and the products were quantified and qualified from Gas Chromatography - Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) with standards compounds. Data were presented in terms of distillation equipment and distillation curve values of volume and temperature of the crude bio-oil sample. Information about GC-FID methods and chromatograms of from standard heptaldehyde and methyl undecenoate and their analytical curve. Carbon number data of crude bio-oil sample was also showed. (c) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).