CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 37, 2014 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Eliseo Ranzi, Katharina Kohse- Höinghaus Copyright © 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., I SBN 978-88-95608-28-0; I SSN 2283-9216 The Potential of Biodiesel Production from Frying Oil Used in the Restaurants of São Paulo city, Brazil Silvério C. Silva Filho a, c , Thadeu A. F. Silva a , c , Amanda C. Miranda a , Monize P. B. Fernandesa, Heloisa H. Felício a , Felipe A. Calarge b , José C. C. Santana* a , Elias B. Tambourgi c a Department of Exact Science, Nine July University (UNINOVE), Av. Dr. Adolfo Pinto, 109, Barra Funda, São Paulo, Brazil; b Industrial Engineering Post-Graduation Program, UNINOVE, Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 612, Água Branca, Zip Code: 05001-100, São Paulo, Brazil. c School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Av. Albert Einstein, 500, Post Code: 6066, Zip Code: 13083 – 970, Barão Geraldo, Campinas-SP, Brazil; jccurvelo@yahoo.com.br This work aimed to produce a biodiesel from oils used in restaurants of São Paulo, Brazil, to discover the power production city and to demonstrate its economical feasibility. For this, it has been researched in the Brazilian market sales prices of glycerin, carbon credit, biodiesel and diesel blend, well as well, the amount of B20 blend (70.1 10 3 m 3 /month) used by the bus fleet of São Paulo and the amount of residual oil generated by restaurants. During the collection of frying oil samples used in restaurants, it has applied a standardized questionnaire (1-5 Likert scale) to the manager, in which contained questions about the type of restaurant, the amount of frying oil produced and if he knew the environmental impacts of its disposal. Ethanol was mixed at 1:7 to the samples of cooking oils collected from restaurants and it was transesterified at 60 °C, for 1 h, in order to obtain biodiesel, using NaOH as a catalyst. Results showed that the restaurants had a monthly consumption of 120 L, giving 3.6 10 3 m 3 /month; it is equivalent to 48 % of B100 used in bus fleet. A conversion yield of 87 % has found in this work and with its production is possible to reduce US$ 120 million per year the fuel cost. Also it is possible contribute to the reduction or elimination of indiscriminate disposal of oils; of 92 % of sulfur emissions and to acquire the carbon credits which improve the city's image as it becomes an environmentally friendly city. 1. Introduction According to Diya’uddeen et al. (2012), the biodiesel can be defined as a monoalkyl ester of long chain fatty acids derived from a renewable lipid feedstock, such as vegetable oil or animal fat. If it is obtained from other sources are considered as II generation biodiesel (Pirozzi et al., 2013). It is sulphur free, non- toxic and biodegradable; it reduces the emission of gas pollutants and global warming; it is economically competitive and may be produced by small companies (Benjumea et al., 2008; Lin and Lin, 2007). In terms of productivity biodiesel the first country is Malaysia/Indonesia with 4747 kg/ha from palm oil, followed by Europe/EU with 946 kg/ha from rapeseed and sunflower oil and West Canadian with 809 kg/ha canola oil; but EU is the world's largest producer. The interest of the European Union in the utilization and consumption of biodiesel is based on their greater production of biodiesel, which is estimated at approximately 85 % of the world’s total. However, of according to Giraçol et al. (2011), there are severe criticisms regarding the production of biodiesel from edible oil, because it may imply a rise in the price of this essential item in food beyond the need to expand the area under cultivation of oilseeds and the possibility of desertification area degraded by agricultural use. Current, there are a lot of clamours regarding the environment and its sustainability (Rosa et al., 2013). Thus used domestic waste oil should be considered as a source of fuel for effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as well as for providing environmental benefits and sustainable DOI: 10.3303/CET1437097 Please cite this article as: Silva-Filho S.C.D., Silva T.A.F., Miranda A.C., Fernandes M.P.B., Felicio H.H., Calarge F.A., Santana J.C.C., Tambourgi E.B., 2014, The potential of biodiesel production from frying oil used in the restaurants of sao paulo city, brazil, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 37, 577-582 DOI: 10.3303/CET1437097 577