Toxins monitoring in biodiesel oil cake and speciation analysis in samples of environmental and agronomical interest

Abstract

Both research efforts and investments related to biodiesel production have been mainly focused on the use of new synthetic routes and raw materials. Considering that the utilization of oilseeds by-products has been put on the back burner, there is a lack of analytical procedures for the detection of toxins in biodiesel by-products that, in turn, can be used as fertilizers and animal feed. This project intend to develop clean analytical methods for monitoring toxins in both castor and cotton cakes. Another research aim consists of establishing clean analytical methods with high sensitivity for both speciation and quantification of chemical species (e.g., bromide, bromate) in natural water using a flow-based system. For this, it will be explored the coupling of multicommutated flow analysis systems to either solid phase or long-path spectrophotometries. The produced wastes will be degraded and analyzed for their toxicities prior to their disposal. (AU)