Synthesis of biodiesel from palm oil and sea mango oil using sulfated zirconia catalyst
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Date
2009
Authors
B Kansedo, Jibrail
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Abstract
The production of biodiesel from palm oil and sea mango oil (Cerbera odollam oil) using heterogeneous catalysts was studied. Two types of heterogeneous catalysts (a) sulfated zirconia which was synthesized in the laboratory and (b) a commercial montmorillonite KSF were used. The initial part of this research project was to synthesize, optimize and characterize sulfated zirconia catalyst. Then, the synthesized sulfated zirconia catalyst was used in the production of biodiesel (transesterification process). The second heterogeneous catalyst (for comparison purpose) a commercial montmorillonite KSF was used directly in the transesterification process. Refined palm oil was used as feedstock whereas sea mango oil was used as an alternative feedstock. Sea mango oil was extracted from the seeds of sea mango fruits. The synthesis of sulfated zirconia was carried out with and without a support. Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) was used as support. Supported sulfated zirconia gave the highest catalytic activity. With a catalyst loading of 6 wt%, palm fatty acid methyl esters (palm FAME) yield of 82.8% was obtained at the following reaction conditions; reaction temperature of 180 oC, reaction period of 180 minutes and ratio of oil to methanol at 1:8. Using the same catalyst loading, sea mango fatty acid methyl esters (sea mango FAME) with a yield of 83.4% were obtained at the same reaction conditions. On the other hand, when commercial montmorillonite KSF catalyst was used, a lower yield was obtained. The highest yield of palm FAME produced using montmorillonite KSF was 79.6% (reaction temperature of 190 oC, reaction period of 180 minutes, ratio of oil to methanol at 1:8 and amount of catalyst 3%) and only 48.3% yield of sea mango FAME was produced at the same reaction condition. Nevertheless, sea mango oil was found to be a potential feedstock for biodiesel production due to its high oil content of 54%. The characterization of the supported sulfated zirconia was carried out using FTIR, XRD, BET, TGA and SEM. It was found that the supported sulfated zirconia has properties of solid superacid with low surface area and low porosity. The characterization of palm FAME indicated that the supported sulfated zirconia and montmorillonite KSF are reliable catalysts for the production of biodiesel that meets the international and Malaysian standard of biodiesel. The kinetic of the transesterification reaction using sulfated zirconia catalyst was also studied and the rate parameters were determined. An activation energy value of 50.05 kJ/mol and frequency factor of 1.4 × 105 min-1 were obtained for the transesterification reaction.
Description
Master
Keywords
Chemical science , Biodiesel , Palm oil , Sea mango oil , Sulfated zirconia catalyst