Experimental data of the distillation of bio-oil from thermal cracking of methyl ester in castor oil.

This article presents the experimental data on distillation of bio-oil obtained from thermal cracking of a mixture of castor oil and its methyl esters. The interpretation of the data can be found in Menshhein et al. (2019) available on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.04.136. Experiments were carried out using a simple distillation apparatus and the products were quantified and qualified from Gas Chromatography - Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) with standards compounds. Data were presented in terms of distillation equipment and distillation curve values of volume and temperature of the crude bio-oil sample. Information about GC-FID methods and chromatograms of from standard heptaldehyde and methyl undecenoate and their analytical curve. Carbon number data of crude bio-oil sample was also showed.

Optimization of biodiesel synthesis by esterification using a fermented solid produced by Rhizopus microsporus on sugarcane bagasse.

A fermented solid containing lipases was produced by solid-state fermentation of Rhizopus microsporus on sugarcane bagasse enriched with urea, soybean oil, and a mineral solution. The dry fermented solid produced using R. microsporus (RMFS) was used to catalyze the synthesis of alkyl-esters by esterification in a solvent-free system containing ethanol and oleic acid (as a model system) or a mixture of fatty acids obtained from the physical hydrolysis of soybean soapstock acid oil (FA-SSAO) in subcritical water. The conversions were 93.5 and 84.1%, for oleic acid and FA-SSAO, respectively, at 48 h and 40 °C, at a molar ratio (MR) of ethanol to fatty acid of 5:1. A further increase in the MR to 10:1 improved the production of ethylic-esters, giving conversions at 48 h of 98 and 86% for oleic acid and FA-SSAO, respectively. The results obtained in this work foster further studies on scaling-up of an environmentally friendly process to produce biofuels.