Descrizione del progetto
Produzione di biodiesel a partire da olio esausto
Le emissioni dei veicoli contribuiscono ai cambiamenti climatici e al riscaldamento globale. Il biodiesel, prodotto a partire da olio vegetale, è stato considerato come un sostituto del diesel. Ciononostante, l’impiego di oli commestibili, necessari per la sua produzione, è origine di conflitti con la produzione di colture alimentari, il che lo rende meno attraente. Nuove tecnologie per gestire gli oli non commestibili di qualità inferiore, tra cui l’olio esausto, sono attualmente in fase di sviluppo. Questa nuova materia prima è stata testata a livello sperimentale offrendo risultati promettenti, ma vi è tuttora una mancanza di conoscenze in merito all’impiego di tale metodo. Il progetto UNPRECEDENTED, finanziato dall’UE, combinerà dati sperimentali e modellizzazione teorica allo scopo di studiare e comprendere le fasi reattive di questo metodo, nonché per valutare la fattibilità della conversione dell’olio esausto per la produzione di biodiesel.
Obiettivo
40% reduction on emissions should be achieved by 2030 within EU with the outstanding goal for Europe to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. These goals need to be reached without jeopardizing economic development and growth, and simultaneously fulfilling the UN goals for sustainability.
One of the main contributors to climate change and global warming is emissions from our vehicles as these mainly use petroleum-based fuels. To address this, new approaches, methodologies, and technologies must be developed.
Biodiesel is one option to substitute diesel; however, its production has been controversial since it requires the use of edible oils and thus creates conflicts with the production of food crops, making it less attractive. Because of this problem, newer technologies are being developed to treat lower quality nonedible oils. However, as yet, these are not economically viable.
To address these problems, UNPRECEDENTED will focus on the use of waste oil. This new raw material has been tested experimentally with promising results. However, how the reaction is taking place and the steps involved is far from being understood. This lack of knowledge has a negative effect when selecting new technologies or testing new feedstocks.
UNPRECEDENTED will use a combine methodology of experimental data and theoretical modelling (DFT based calculations) to study and fully comprehend the biodiesel production reaction. This methodology will permit a full understanding of the reactive steps involved, the reaction pathway that is followed as well as the energies involved in each reactive step. This methodology will assess for the conversion of waste oil in the presence of renewable alcohols to produce biodiesel when using new catalytic materials that are biobased, produce from renewable sources, and enriched with glycerol.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculeslipids
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryalcohols
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit GrantCoordinatore
1433 As
Norvegia