THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-TREATMENT WITH ALKALINE WASH FOR THE OBTAINTION OF BIODISEL FROM VEGETABLE OIL ALOE VERA

Abstract

The importance of producing biofuels in large scale and the technical aspects required by the market have resulted in biodiesel derived from plant oil kinematic viscosity related researches. Transesterification is the most common and efficientway to reduce viscosity. Considering that it is a one-step process, it has become the simplest and most affordable method when compared to others biodiesel obtaintion processes. Butfurther than the main trasesterification process, thereare other processes that aim to reduce the impurities fromraw materials which are used throughoutthe process. The colorless gel extracted from aloe vera, which is the focus of this work, could only adapt to the trasensterification process after it went through an alkaline wash, showing the relevance of this method when it comes to obtain the final product.

Index Terms - Biodiesel,Aloe Vera, transesterification.alkaline wash.