Estudo do equilíbrio líquido-líquido e da estabilidade de sistemas envolvendo biodiesel, álcoois e água

Abstract

The study of the stability of biofuels emulsions calls attention, among other things, to the need to identify their characteristics. This need is reinforced by the difficulty of detecting biodiesel and its blends when they are out of specification, and apply the processes of biodiesel separation and purification after transesterification. The understanding of this issue could be reach from stability studies associated with thermodynamic models of liquid-liquid equilibrium (NRTL) in ternary systems, which will be the basis for modeling proposed in this paper. The research involves direct observation techniques for titration, and stability tests and tensiometry, with some changes of classical techniques. Thus, the main objective is to propose a way to identify and characterize the interfaces of emulsions formed and study the stability of the phases involved. Furthermore, it studies the introduction of alcohols as surfactants to enable the use of mixtures of fuel, even in the region of more than one phase. For development work, emulsions involving basic constituents will be combined in different proportions. The first step consists of mapping the mixtures and proportions which form emulsions, based on the equilibrium curves. Then, it is done the study of characterization and stability of these systems. With this information it is possible to map the direction of an increase in the interface tension and phase separation instability of emulsions in relation to the corresponding ternary diagrams. Finally, it proposes a strategy to estimate the thermodynamic parameters of the NRTL for the species present in the systems studied and predict the behavior of these and similar systems. This mathematical model aims to complement the experimental technique adopted for construction of the equilibrium curves, being successful