3 min read 
0 comments 
UFSC revolutionizes biodiesel production with new sustainable technology! Discover how this eco-friendly fuel can be produced twice as much and boost renewable energy.
Researchers from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), through the Applied Combustion and Catalysis Laboratory (LAC), located on the Joinville campus, have developed a reactor that doubles biodiesel production. The new technology is a means of producing a more sustainable fuel and has already had its patent filed. The information was released by the portal apufsc on January 27th of this year.
Understand how biodiesel production works with UFSC's new technology
The innovation of the new technology for the production of sustainable fuel lies precisely in the elimination of stages in the process.
In conventional production methods, the reactants, typically soybean oil and methanol, need to be mixed before being placed in reactors operating at temperatures of 80 °C.
- Man could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to collect all the elements of the periodic table
- Sacani comments on the company that resurrected the extinct dire wolf
- South Korea creates super metal that can withstand freezing temperatures of -196°C to extremes of 600°C
- End of labor shortage in agriculture: China to create 'human robot' capable of working as a farmer
The UFSC reactor does not use this prior mixing, given that it uses electrical discharges, which occur inside it, to mix the reagents, which does not happen under normal conditions.
Therefore, two stages of the process become just one, boosting biodiesel production. The patent application is awaiting analysis by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI).
It is worth noting that biodiesel is a sustainable fuel option and its production is leveraged by international agreements and new incentive policies in the country. Fuel Law of the Future, 14.993/2024, encourages the use of this resource.
The standard establishes the National Green Diesel Program (PNDV), which works with the mission of reducing carbon emissions, especially those generated by heavy vehicles, encouraging the replacement of polluting sources with more renewable and cleaner alternatives.
The agreements undertaken by Brazil in the Paris Agreement in 2015, to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, also boost biodiesel production.
UFSC scientists advance with new technology
The team of scientists is made up of postdoctoral researcher Maira Oliveira Palm and undergraduate students Lucas Pavani and Júlia Rezende, under the supervision of Professor Rafael Catapan, project coordinator, and professors Cátia Carvalho Pinto and Diego Duarte. The idea for the new technology to generate sustainable fuel came about during Maira Oliveira Palm's doctorate in environmental engineering.
The researcher reformulated the project during her postdoctoral studies in engineering and mechanical sciences. The UFSC scientists will continue research into the new biodiesel production technology, testing the processes with new raw materials and verifying the quality of the products obtained. The researchers will also test the use of heterogeneous catalysts, which can reduce production costs.
Institutions behind UFSC technology
In addition to LAC, the project for the production of sustainable fuel involved the Surface Treatment Laboratory (LAT) also at UFSC Joinville and the Graduate Studies in Mechanical Engineering and Sciences, in Joinville, in Environmental Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering, in Florianópolis. Students of Aerospace Engineering and Railway and Metro Engineering participated in the development of the new technology through scientific initiation scholarships.
The project was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (FNDCT/MCTI) and the Foundation for Research and Innovation Support of the State of Santa Catarina (FAPESC).
It is important to mention that biodiesel is a sustainable and biodegradable fuel, and can be obtained through esterification, cracking or transesterification. The main raw materials are sunflower, peanuts, babassu, soybeans, castor oil, palm oil, and animal fat.
