PURIFICATION OF SOYBEAN OIL-BASEAD BIODIESEL BY CHOLINE CHLORIDE-BASED IONIC LIQUIDS ANALOGOUS

Abstract

Traditional biodiesel purification processes are slow and costly, generating large volumes of effluents to meet the quality parameters required by legislation. This work evaluates the effects of new combinations for the synthesis of ionic liquids (LI’s) on the efficiency of the solvent in removing impurities from soy biodiesel. Choline chloride-based LI’s analogs, synthesized with the eutectic mixture of glycerol, ethylene glycol and triethylene glycol, were used in different ratios to wash pre-purified biodiesel. The IL L9 composed of choline chloride, glycerol and triethylene glycol (1:2:1), had the highest efficiency (98.05%) when used in the ratio R2 (1:1), with an optimum washing time of 60 minutes. Crude biodiesel was also purified with the new solvent and showed good efficiency even when reused, in accordance with RANP 45/2014.