Biodiesel Production from High Free Fatty Acid Waste Cooking Oil by Solid Acid Catalyst

Heterogeneous transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) with methanol in the presence of heteropoly acid (HPA) catalyst have been investigated. The effect of different operation parameters such as methanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst loading, reaction temperature, and reaction time were evaluated. The 88.6% conversion was obtained at the optimum condition of 70:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 65 ˚C reaction temperature, 10 wt% catalyst, and 14 h reaction time. The catalyst showed the high activity site and at least four times reusability. Meanwhile, this type of catalyst can significantly decrease the cost of pre-treatment, separation and purification processes.