Nesse estudo um planejamento experimental de misturas de biodieseis é utilizado para avaliar e otimizar a estabilidade oxidativa de amostras de biodiesel de soja contendo diferentes teores de biodiesel de sebo e de mamona. As misturas de biodieseis foram preparadas com teores que variaram entre 80-86% (v/v) para a soja, 5-15% (v/v) para o sebo e 1-10% (v/v) para a mamona. O período de indução da amostra de biodiesel de soja puro serviu de base para a comparação com a estabilidade das misturas. A estratégia de planejamento experimental de misturas mostrou-se adequada para a formulação de misturas de biodiesel com ótima estabilidade oxidativa. O modelo quadrático obtido na etapa de otimização ajustou-se adequadamente aos dados experimentais, sendo capaz de prever as proporções ótimas para misturas com maior estabilidade oxidativa. O melhor período de indução foi obtido com as seguintes proporções: 82,5% (v/v) de soja, 7,5% (v/v) de sebo e 10,0% (v/v) de mamona.

This study proposes an experimental design of biodiesel constrained mixtures to evaluate and optimize the oxidative stability of soybean biodiesel mixed with different amounts of tallow and castor bean biodiesels. To prepare the biodiesel blends, the proportions of each type of biodiesel were varied, producing mixtures that contained 80-86% (v/v) soybean, 5-15% (v/v) tallow, and 1-10% (v/v) castor bean biodiesel. The induction period of pure soybean biodiesel served as the baseline for comparing the stability of the mixtures. The experimental design strategy was capable of producing the best oxidative stability for biodiesel mixtures. The quadratic model obtained in the optimization stage fits the experimental data well. The higher induction period occurred at the following composition: 82.5% (v/v) soybean, 7.5% (v/v) tallow and 10.0% (v/v) castor bean.

Total spectrofluorimetry associated to Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were used to classify into different groups the samples of diesel oil, biodiesel, vegetal oil and residual oil, as well as, to identify addition of non-transesterified residual vegetable oil, instead of biodiesel, to the diesel oil. Using this method, the samples of diesel oil, mixtures of biodiesel in diesel and mixtures of residual oil in diesel were separated into well-defined groups.

Thermal baths to decrease ambient temperature are an indispensable tool for most research and teaching laboratories, especially those in tropical or equatorial regions. A simple and inexpensive thermal bath has been developed based on a scratched compressor. It has three possible setups for cooling: sample immersed into the bath, sample flowing through the bath, and cooling liquid flowing in a jacket around the sample. It has been tested for 40 months. The temperature ranges from room temperature to 0 °C, when using water. The repeatability is better than 3% and the precision varies from 0.5% to 2%.