Purification of B5 Biodiesel with Thermoactivated Bauxite

Over the years, the partial replacement of petroleum diesel with biodiesel derived from lipid sources, which is less polluting, has become a reality. However, this increase in biodiesel use has led to technological problems that were not observed when only petroleum-derived diesel was used. Among the various residues found, the most notable are the compounds from the esterification reaction, such as mono-, di- and also some unreacted triacylglycerols. Other compounds, such as esterglycosides present in soybean oil, which are soluble in lipid solutions, end up becoming insoluble with the esterification of the fatty acid in their chain, which ultimately causes them to precipitate in fuel tanks. The presence of these undesirable constituents in the fuel causes an increase in moisture and the proliferation of microorganisms that end up forming biofilms and making it difficult to clean storage tanks, as well as causing clogging of filters in vehicles that use this type of fuel. This paper presents a fixed-bed percolation treatment using thermoactivated bauxite to remove these total contaminants.