Revalorization of Grape Seed Oil for Innovative Non-Food Applications

Abstract

Grape processing produces a substantial amount of residues that are highly polluting and expensive to treat, being grape seed one of the main by-products with high commercial interest. During the extraction process of grape seed oil, most of the nutraceutical compounds remain on the solid cake. This book chapter resumes the potential utilization of grape seed oil for producing biobased materials through environmentally friendly processes that could substitute petroleum-derived products. Special atention is given to transesteriication and epoxidation processes. The transesteriication of grape seed oil in presence of methanol drives to the production of a biodiesel with excellent low-temperature properties. According to EN 14214, grape seed oil-based biodiesel presents a slightly lower cetane number than the speciied limit. In addition, this biodiesel presents a low oxidation stability which can be improved by the incorporation of oxidation stabilizer. Atending to the epoxidation of grape seed oil, short reaction times and high temperatures are advised. Epoxidized grape seed oil can be used for the synthesis of biobased polyols and its further application on the synthesis of polyurethane compounds.

Oxidation Stability: The Bottleneck for the Development of a Fully Renewable Biofuel from Wine Industry Waste

“…In general, process yields for in situ biofuels are very poor because the oil content of the grapeseed is very low, around 16% v/w. 4 , 5 , 35 …”

“…3 This huge amount of wine production also involves the generation of a large number of byproducts, as grape marc (15–20% with respect to grape weight) and wine lees (10–15% with respect to grape weight). 4 Grape marc is composed of grape skins (70–90% w/w), grape stems (5–20% w/w), and grapeseeds (0.5–2% w/w). 5 From the grapeseeds, grapeseed oil can be extracted (13–19% w/w).…”

“… 5 From the grapeseeds, grapeseed oil can be extracted (13–19% w/w). 4 Besides, bioethanol can also be obtained from the wine industry. In Spain, in 2018, 5.2 MhL of bioethanol derived from wine surplus and grape marc, which accounted for 5% of the total bioethanol production.…”

“…Grapeseed oil FAEE has been studied by other authors, 19 although marginally. Grapeseed oil FAME has been more extensively studied, 4 , 19 , 29 but this one is not fully renewable due to the use of methanol as the transesterification reagent. Moreover, grapeseed oil FAEE presents a better cetane number, 30 cold flow properties, 19 heating value, 8 , 19 , 29 and lubricity 8 , 29 , 31 than grapeseed oil FAME.…”

“…Moreover, in 2018, 292 MhL of wine were produced in the world, with Spain being the third major wine producer (44.4 MhL) in Europe . This huge amount of wine production also involves the generation of a large number of byproducts, as grape marc (15–20% with respect to grape weight) and wine lees (10–15% with respect to grape weight) . Grape marc is composed of grape skins (70–90% w/w), grape stems (5–20% w/w), and grapeseeds (0.5–2% w/w) .…”