Esterification, Distillation, and Chemical Characterization of Bio-Oil and Its Fractions

In a previous study, crude bio-oil (CBO) was obtained from the fast pyrolysis of waste cooking oil (WCO) under different conditions, varying the temperature and the residence time of the process. The samples produced were characterized by physicochemical methods and the results showed an acidic, viscous and odoriferous material. In this study, the esterification reaction was used to reduce the acidity of CBO. This step decreased the acidity value of the bio-oil by almost 95%. After, the CBO was then distilled at the boiling points of gasoline and diesel producing light and heavy fractions with approximately 30% and 50% yields, respectively. The physicochemical characterization of these light and heavy fractions was performed to obtain information on their properties, such as the specific gravity, iodine value, kinematic viscosity and acid number. These biofuels were also submitted to chromatographic analysis (GC-FID and GC-MS), which partially revealed their composition as being rich in aromatics, olefin ...