Vegetable oils are renewable fuels. They have become more attractive recently because of their environmental benefits and the fact that they are made from renewable resources. Vegetable oils have the potential to replace a fraction of the petroleum distillates and petroleum-based petrochemicals in the near future. Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources. Biodiesel, as an alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, is defined as a mixture of monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids (FAME) derived from a renewable lipid feedstock, such as vegetable oil or animal fat. A variety of biolipids can be used to produce biodiesel. These are: virgin vegetable oil feedstock (rapeseed, soybean, sunflower and palm oils); waste vegetable oil; animal fats; and non-edible oils such as tall oil, castor oil etc. Tall oil is a by-product of the manufacturing of pulp and paper products. It is one possible feedstock not commonly studied for biodiesel production. The amount and composition of fatty acids of tall oil depends on the processed pulpwood species. In Romania, the main resinous species are spruce, silver fir and pine (of 21.7%, 4.8% and, respectively 1.8% from total forestry area). To our knowledge no study were found about fatty acids content of crude tall oil produced in Romania’s pulp factories. The aim of the present work was the identification and quantification of fatty acids as FAMEs (fatty acid methyl esters) in crude tall oil samples from Somes-Dej (T 1 ) and Ambro-Suceava (T 2 ), using gas-chromatography (GC) with flame ionization detector (FID). The main fatty acids found in both studied tall oils were: linoleic, oleic and palmitic, acids at different concentrations, depending on the oil origin. It were observed that in sample T 2 the sum of percents of saturated fatty acids (10.22%) and monounsaturated fatty acids (48.27%) was higher then in sample  T 1 (12.05% and 40.82%, respectively) but in each of them  these sums were higher then the total amounts of  polyunsaturated fatty acids (T 1 : 47.13% and  T 2 : 41.49%, respectively). The high proportion of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids is considered optimal from a fuel quality standpoint in that fuel polymerization during combustion would be substantially less than what would occur with polyunsaturated fatty-acid-derived fuel.

biodiesel; tall oil; fatty acids

Presentation: oral