Improvements of Thermal and Thermochemical Properties of Rosin by Chemical Transformation for Its Use as Biofuel

Abstract

The use of raw materials from renewable sources has become an important topic for different industries. Pine oleoresin is one of the most important renewable sources. It is composed of a broad range of chemical substances from volatile molecules to complex compounds. The resinic fraction, known as rosin or colophony, comprises approximately 80% of oleoresin. This fraction has become the most attractive one from the economic standpoint. Rosin is a complex mixture of diterpenic acids and is typically used in formulation of adhesives, coating materials, rubbers, printing inks, among others. Although their transformations have been studied, scarce information on the thermal and thermochemical properties of rosin and rosinderived products has been reported. In this work some of these properties have been estimated to evaluate the influence of chemical transformations such as reduction, isomerization and esterification of rosin components. The estimations have been compared to the literature data and to some experimental values. The interest of some of these transformations is based on the reduction in melting and boiling temperatures observed, although such reductions are probably not enough to use these substances as fuel components.

Hydrogenated Turpentine: A Biobased Component for Jet Fuel

“…When obtained by vacuum distillation of pine resin around 20% w/w of turpentine (in this case also named gum turpentine) is attained. The bottom part of this vacuum distillation is rosin, which accounts for around 80% w/w of the pine resin, and whose main components are diterpenes C20 with carboxylic acid functionality . Turpentine has been traditionally used as solvent for paints and varnishes, but it was displaced long ago from this role by the much cheaper white spirit coming from petroleum.…”

Esterification of rosin with methyl alcohol for fuel applications

“…Other transformations at mild conditions, such as reduction and esterification, are desirable from the environmental and economic standpoints. However, in a previous work, we reported the drawbacks of using rosin methyl esters as a fuel component (i.e., at high contents), mainly due to the high propensity of the methyl esterification product of rosin to remain as a solid [6]. Nevertheless, an application of methyl esters of rosin as a fuel additive (i.e., concentration lower than 1000 ppm, in which it can be completely solubilized in hydrocarbons, as shown for rosin-derived compounds blended with α-olefin [7]), has been scarcely reported.…”

Thermal and Sound Insulation Properties of Organic Biocomposite Mixtures

“…Coniferous resins can be used as matrices or modifiers in composites with different fillers, such as wood, cellulose, glass fiber, carbon fiber, and clay, which generally improve thermal stability by increasing the onset of degradation and decreasing weight loss. Coniferous resin composites also showed good mechanical and electrical properties, but their sound absorption properties have not been reported [ 15 ].…”