Caracterização físico-química e extração da gordura das amêndoas de murumuru (Astrocaryum Murumuru) visando a produção de biocombustível

Abstract

The Amazon has a wide variety of oilseed species, one of which is murumuru (Astrocaryum murumuru), the fruit of a palm tree belonging to the Arecaceae family, popularly known as murumuruzeiro. Murumuru is a palm tree of Amazonian origin, the fruit consists of pulp and almonds. Through almonds it is possible to obtain a significant oil content, this oil is transformed into a semi-solid, white and odorless fat, rich in short-chain saturated fatty acids such as lauric and myristic. Therefore, the present work aimed to evaluate the viability of fat from murumuru almonds (Astrocaryum murumuru) as a raw material for the production of biofuel. Analyzes were carried out to characterize the almonds: immediate analyzes (moisture content, ash content, volatile material content and fixed carbon), as well as analyzes to characterize the fat extracted from the almonds (acidity index, saponification index and analysis Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), analysis of the yield of extracted fat was also carried out. Therefore, based on the results obtained, the characterized moisture content was 35.93%; the other results of the immediate analyzes (CZ, MV and CF) were satisfactory, with values of 1.45%; 92.07% and 6.47%, respectively; the values of the acidity and saponification index analyzes were 2.98% and 260.4%, these results corroborate the values found in the literature. As for the fat yield result, the value obtained was 53.73%, indicating a satisfactory percentage.