Sucrose-derived catalytic biodiesel synthesis from low cost palm fatty acid distillate.

Abstract The current homogeneous acid catalyst for biodiesel product however, would lead to formation of many undesirable by-products that make the post treatment of the biodiesel to be difficult and costly. Thus, sucrose-derived solid acid catalyst was developed in the present study which aims to improve the esterification process and reduce the generation of waste. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized catalysts were studied by various techniques such as, BET surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature programmed desorption of NH3 (TPD-NH3), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) is used to determine the optimum parameters for the catalytic reaction. The experimental results showed that the catalyst exhibited good catalytic activity in the transesterification of PFAD, providing maximum biodiesel yield of 94% at optimum parameters. The better catalytic activity of the aforementioned catalyst in the biodiesel reaction could be attributed to the presence of optimal number of catalytically active acid site density on its surface.

[1]  L. Warr,et al.  Interlaboratory standardization and calibration of day mineral crystallinity and crystallite size data , 1994 .

[2]  Saiful Islam,et al.  Advances in solid-catalytic and non-catalytic technologies for biodiesel production , 2014 .

[3]  E. Chan,et al.  Studies on design of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production , 2013 .

[4]  Zeeshan Nawaz,et al.  Synthesis of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil with large amounts of free fatty acids using a carbon-based solid acid catalyst , 2010 .

[5]  E. Chan,et al.  Synthesis and characterization of millimetric gamma alumina spherical particles by oil drop granulation method , 2012, Journal of Porous Materials.

[6]  Talal Yusaf,et al.  Transesterification of Nannochloropsis oculata microalga's oil to biodiesel using calcium methoxide catalyst. , 2014 .

[7]  O. Antunes,et al.  Acid-Catalyzed Homogeneous Esterification Reaction for Biodiesel Production from Palm Fatty Acids , 2008 .

[8]  L. Alexander,et al.  X-Ray diffraction procedures for polycrystalline and amorphous materials , 1974 .

[9]  A. Abdullah,et al.  Sugar cane bagasse as solid catalyst for synthesis of methyl esters from palm fatty acid distillate , 2012 .

[10]  Carlo Pirola,et al.  Free fatty acids esterification of waste cooking oil and its mixtures with rapeseed oil and diesel , 2013 .

[11]  Hao Yu,et al.  Sulfonated carbon nanotubes as a strong protonic acid catalyst , 2005 .

[12]  V. Roddatis,et al.  Tribochemical Modification of the Microstructure of V2O5 , 2001 .

[13]  E. J. Mittemeijer,et al.  The determination of crystallite-size and lattice-strain parameters in conjunction with the profile-refinement method for the determination of crystal structures , 1983 .

[14]  J. Haber,et al.  Influence of the mechanochemical treatment on the reactivity of V-containing oxide systems , 1997 .

[15]  Y. Taufiq-Yap,et al.  Production of biodiesel from mixed waste vegetable oils using Ferric hydrogen sulphate as an effective reusable heterogeneous solid acid catalyst , 2013 .

[16]  K. Domen,et al.  Amorphous Carbon Bearing Sulfonic Acid Groups in Mesoporous Silica as a Selective Catalyst , 2009 .

[17]  Chakrit Tongurai,et al.  Continuous esterification for biodiesel production from palm fatty acid distillate using economical process , 2009 .

[18]  E. Chan,et al.  Transesterification of palm oil using KF and NaNO3 catalysts supported on spherical millimetric γ-Al2O3 , 2013 .

[19]  Yujun Wang,et al.  Calcium methoxide as a solid base catalyst for the transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel with methanol , 2008 .

[20]  Yijun Liu,et al.  A Novel Sulfonated Carbon Composite Solid Acid Catalyst for Biodiesel Synthesis , 2008 .

[21]  Atsushi Takagaki,et al.  Green chemistry: Biodiesel made with sugar catalyst , 2005, Nature.

[22]  Y. Taufiq-Yap,et al.  Production of biodiesel from palm oil using modified Malaysian natural dolomites , 2014 .

[23]  Y. Taufiq-Yap,et al.  Production of biodiesel from non-edible Jatropha curcas oil via transesterification using Bi2O3-La2O3 catalyst. , 2014 .