Babassu (Orbignya sp.) is a palm with extraordinary socioeconomic and ecologic importance found in humid tropical areas in Brazil, especially in frequently burned and degraded landscapes. There are several uses for babassu oil; however, its potential for providing other industrial products remains unexploited, due to the lack of scale and production structure. Oil and presscake extracted from kernels are industrially produced, while the remaining parts of the babassu coconut have the potential to add value as byproducts. This study aimed to establish conditions for the preparation of the raw material fruit of babassu for oil extraction by pressing and producing biodiesel by ethanolic transesterification. Babassu coconuts were dried at 75 and 90 °C. The separation of the fractions rich in fiber, starch, kernel and mesocarp was performed in appropriate equipments. The starch content in the mesocarp fractions of babassu coconuts dried at 75 and at 90 °C were 54 and 56 %, respectively and lipids represented 65 % of the kernel. Oil and press cake were obtained through hydraulic and continuous press, biodiesel was produced and the quality of products was compared. The total of saturated fatty acid in babassu oil was between 78 and 82 %, and the total of unsaturated fatty acids that promote good oxidative stability in the oil was in the range of 17 to 20 %. Oil obtained by cold pressing extraction and its biodiesel had better results in terms of quality. The quality of oils is within the Codex standard and biodiesel from oil extracted by cold pressing had higher oxidative stability.

O coco babaçu (Orbignya speciosa) é constituído por quatro partes. Epicarpo, mesocarpo, endocarpo e amêndoas. Atualmente o coco babaçu é coletado e descascado manualmente por mulheres e crianças, sendo um dos problemas sociais da região Nordeste/Norte do Brasil. O trabalho de pesquisa teve como objetivo desenvolver um processo de descascamento adequado para o coco. Foram feitas caracterizações quanto ao volume, massa, densidade real, comprimento, perímetro transversal e distância entre o epicarpo e a amêndoa. Estes dados foram analisados, estabelecendo relações entre a quantidade de amêndoas encontradas em cada coco e as médias dos valores dos parâmetros estudados. Seis experimentos foram realizados com o objetivo de verificar a força de compressão necessária para a sua quebra, sendo analisado no coco in natura; descascado por abrasão; seco a 120 °C; seco a 120 °C e descascado por abrasão; seco a 120 °C descascado por abrasão, hidratado e congelado a -18 °C; e seco a 120 °C, descascado por abrasão, hidratado e "puffing" (Expansão). No procedimento de descascamento, verificou-se o tempo médio para a retirada do epicarpo e mesocarpo, e na secagem e hidratação o tempo de estabilização da massa.

The babassu nut (Orbignya speciosa) consists of fours parts: the epicarp, mesocarp, endocarp and kernel. Currently the babassu nut is collected and cracked manually by women and children, which is one of the social problems of the Brazil's North/Norwest region. The purpose of this work was to develop an effective technique for removing the shell of the babassu nut. Characterizations were made of the volume, mass, real density, length, transversal perimeter and distance between the epicarp and the kernel. These data were analyzed to establish a correlation between the amount of kernels in each babassu nut and the average of the values of the parameters under study. To determine the compressive force required to break babassu nuts, six experiments were carried out involving: a) untreated nuts; b) nuts peeled by abrasion; c) nuts dried at 120 °C; d) dried at 120 °C and peeled by abrasion; e) dried at 120 °C peeled by abrasion, hydrated and frozen at -18 °C; and f) dried at 120 °C, peeled by abrasion, hydrated and puffed. An estimate was made of the average time required to remove the epicarp and mesocarp in the shelling procedure, and of the time required to reach mass equilibrium in the drying and hydration procedure.