Alves, Carine Tondo, Peters, Morenike A. and Onwudili, Jude A. (2022). Application of thermogravimetric analysis method for the characterisation of products from triglycerides during biodiesel production. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 168 ,
Abstract
In this present work, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal degradation of a range of lipids and lipid-derived compounds associated with the production of biodiesel. Thereafter, the procedure was used to successfully quantify the compounds of three process streams from a biodiesel plant. Relevant organic chemicals involved in biodiesel production chemistry, including glycerol, oleic acid (fatty acid), palmitic acid (fatty acid), rapeseed oil (model triglyceride) and fatty acid methyl esters (FAMES) have been studied to determine their volatilisation/thermal degradation patterns. The developed method was then applied for the quantitative characterisation of three samples from a 3-stage biodiesel production plant, including two in-process samples and the final biodiesel product. The method was able to clearly distinguish between two main sets of compounds namely, early - mid volatiles (glycerol, fatty acids and fatty acid methyl esters) and late volatiles (incompletely converted and unreacted triglycerides). In addition, the FAMES in the industrial samples were extracted into petroleum ether and analysed by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC/MS), with good agreement between the two analytical methods. For instance, GC/MS analysis showed that the three industrial samples contained 31.2 ± 0.1 wt%, 60.6 ± 0.2 wt% and 91 ± 0.53 wt% of FAMES, respectively. Similarly, the TGA method gave the FAMES contents of the three samples as 33.9 ± 0.4 wt%, 57.8 ± 0.2 wt% and 85.3 ± 0.52 wt%. This study shows that TGA is a fast and simple method for accurately monitoring the triglyceride conversion stages and the purity of the final product during biodiesel production, without the need for extensive sample preparations and expensive standard solutions.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaap.2022.105766 |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry College of Engineering & Physical Sciences College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) Aston University (General) |
Funding Information: | This work was supported by the EU's Marie-Sklodowska Curie Postodoctoral Fellowship (Grant Number 892998 ) for CTA and the authors would like to thank the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) and Aston University , UK for all support received. |
Additional Information: | Funding Information: This work was supported by the EU's Marie-Sklodowska Curie Postodoctoral Fellowship (Grant Number 892998 ) for CTA and the authors would like to thank the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) and Aston University , UK for all support received. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Biodiesel,Fatty acid methyl esters,Fatty acids,Glycerol,Method development,Thermogravimetric analysis,Analytical Chemistry,Fuel Technology |
Publication ISSN: | 1873-250X |
Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2024 08:45 |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2022 14:28 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK
(Scopus URL) https://www.sci ... 3369?via%3Dihub (Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2022-11-04 |
Published Online Date: | 2022-10-30 |
Accepted Date: | 2022-10-28 |
Authors: |
Alves, Carine Tondo
Peters, Morenike A. Onwudili, Jude A. ( 0000-0002-5355-9970) |