Paper Title
Development of an Alternative Biofuel From Soybean Oil
Abstract
The increasing use of fossil fuels in recent decades has been appointed as one of the main factors responsible for
global warming. The intensification in global average temperature has resulted in stricter environmental laws, particularly
regarding the need to reduce atmospheric emissions. In this context, it is evident the importance of researching alternative fuels
capable of replacing totally or partially fossil fuels, such as biofuels. In this work, a pseudoternary phase diagram was designed
by using soybean oil (non-polar phase), ethanol (polar phase), 2-butanol (cosurfactant (C)) and DBB 7104 (surfactant (S)), and
the microemulsion region was identified as a biofuel. The microemulsion mixture containing 35% wt soybean oil, 5% wt
ethanol and 60% wt C/S = 10 was obtained by magnetic stirring at room temperature, and characterized with respect to specific
gravity at 20 °C (852 kg/m3), kinematic viscosity at 40 °C (4.7 ± 0.2 mm2/s) and flash point (105 ± 1.0 °C) using ASTM
standards. The results showed that the measured properties of the formulated biofuel are comparable to the standards required
for commercialization of biodiesel in Brazil.
Index Terms- biofuels, ethanol, vegetable oil.