Study of corrosion caused by commercial biodiesel in some metallic materials used in contact with fuels

• Grant number: 13/12143-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Assis Vicente Benedetti
• Grantee: Adriano Heleno Akita
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazil stands out in the use of biofuels, eg biodiesel. It has already mandatory use in Brazil mixed with petrodiesel in the percentage of 5% (B5). However, the consequences of using biodiesel in contact with metallic materials still not clear. Recently, our group has developed studies in biodiesel produced in the laboratory, derived from soybean oil and methanol, seeking to establish methodologies to use electrochemical techniques for the study of metallic materials. It was observed that the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique is the most suitable for this study. This project proposes the study of electrochemical processes using glassy carbon, carbon steel SAE1020, Cu and Zn electrodes in commercial biodiesel supplied by CEMPEQC/IQ-UNESP (laboratory accredited by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels - ANP) using mass loss, EIS and electrochemical noise analysis (ENA) techniques. Will be used different types and levels of degradation of biodiesel. The results obtained with glassy carbon will be compared with those obtained with metallic electrodes to get a response that is not influenced by the presence of metallic ions. It is intended to use the EIS results to assist in the understanding the ENA results, since no reports were found in the literature. After electrochemical measurements, images and microanalysis will be obtained from surface of the materials of interest. We will intend to analyze the presence of metallic ions in biodiesel used in these experiments.