Obtenção de diesel verde por craqueamento termocatalítico de óleo de buriti (Mauritia flexuosa L.) sobre materiais nanoestruturados do tipo LaSBA-15

In order to obtain a biofuel similar to mineral diesel, lanthanum-incorporated SBA- 15 nanostructured materials, LaSBA-15(pH), with different Si/La molar ratios (75, 50, 25), were synthesized in a two-steps hydrothermal procedure, with pH-adjusting of the synthesis gel at 6, and were used like catalytic solids in the buriti oil thermal catalytic cracking. These solids were characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DTG), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nitrogen porosimetry and ethanol dehydration, aiming to active sites identify. Taken together, the analyses indicated that the synthesis method has employed to obtain materials highly ordered mesostructures with large average pore sizes and high surface area, besides suggested that the lanthanum was incorporated in the SBA-15 both into the framework as well as within the mesopores. Catalytic dehydration of ethanol over the LaSBA-15(pH) products has shown that they have weak Lewis acid and basic functionalities, indicative of the presence of lanthanum oxide in these samples, especially on the La75SBA-15(pH) sample, which has presented the highest selectivity to ethylene. The buriti oil thermal and thermal catalytic cracking, realized from the room temperature to 450 ºC in a simple distillation system, has allowed obtaining two liquid fractions, each consisting of two phases, one aqueous and another organic, organic liquid (OL). The OL obtained from first fractions has shown high acid index, even in the thermal catalytic process. One the other hand, OL coming from second ones, called green diesel (GD), have presented low acid index, particularly that one obtained from the thermal catalytic process realized over LaSBA-15(pH) samples. The acid sites presence in these samples, associated to their large average pore sizes and high surface areas, have allowed them, especially the La75SBA-15(pH), to present deoxygenating activity in the buriti oil thermal catalytic cracking, providing an oxygenates content reduction, particularly carboxylic acids, in the GD. Furthermore, the GD comes from the second liquid fraction obtained in the buriti oil thermal catalytic cracking over this latest solid sample has shown hydrocarbons composition and physic-chemical properties similar to that mineral diesel, beyond sulfur content low