Variation in the proportion of coconut oil mixed with fish oil: an analysis of the effect on the oxidative potential and quality of the biodiesel produced

Abstract

In view of the constant environmental, social and economic concerns, the biodiesel’s production has proved to be a viable option as an alternative energy source substitute for fossil fuels, contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Whereas that the fishing industry produces a significant amount of by-products, the fish’s oil use for the biodiesel production has proven to be a viable alternative for the energy matrix diversification, helping to repair the environmentally inappropriate disposal of waste generated with fish processing. The coconut oil it’s an inedible oil, it has lowest cost and presents a relatively high oxidative stability, which indicates that its mixture is interesting with fish oil before the transesterification. Oxidative stability is the main impediment of using oil from fishing industry waste for biodiesel production, can be justified mainly by the presence of unsaturation in its carbon chain. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the coconut oil effect, to fish oil from fishing activity residues of a fishmonger located in the city of Rio Grande/RS, in oxidative stability and also perform statistical tests to check the best configuration, temperature, blend, catalyst, in the biodiesel production. The results verified what addition of coconut oil, to fish oil was positive, considering it was acted as an antioxidant additive and the physical-chemical analyzes carried out showed that the biodiesel produced has good quality, since all samples analyzed fit established quality parameters, with exception of the iodine index of some samples.