Transesterification of castor oil using MgO/SiO2 catalyst and coconut oil as co-reactant.

This paper describes the transesterification of castor oil with the use of coconut oil as coreactant and MgO/SiO 2 as heterogeneous base catalyst. The catalyst was prepared from rice husk silica and magnesium nitrate by sol-gel method, with MgO load of 20% relative to silica, and then subjected to sintering treatment at 600 oC for 6 hours. A series of experiments was carried out, indicating that the use of coconut oil as co-reactant significantly promoted the conversion of castor oil into biodiesel.