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Biodiesel production from high acid value waste frying oil catalyzed by superacid heteropolyacid
Author(s) -
Cao Fenghua,
Chen Yang,
Zhai Fengying,
Li Jing,
Wang Jianghua,
Wang Xiaohong,
Wang Shengtian,
Zhu Weimin
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.21879
Subject(s) - transesterification , catalysis , biodiesel , acid value , methanol , biodiesel production , chemistry , sulfuric acid , waste oil , organic chemistry , yield (engineering) , palmitic acid , fatty acid methyl ester , distillation , algae fuel , vegetable oil refining , fatty acid , materials science , biochemistry , metallurgy
Transesterification of waste cooking oil with high acid value and high water contents using heteropolyacid H 3 PW 12 O 40 ·6H 2 O (PW 12 ) as catalyst was investigated. The hexahydrate form of PW 12 was found to be the most promising catalyst which exhibited highest ester yield 87% for transesterification of waste cooking oil and ester yield 97% for esterification of long‐chain palmitic acid, respectively. The PW 12 acid catalyst shows higher activity under the optimized reaction conditions compared with conventional homogeneous catalyst sulfuric acid, and can easily be separated from the products by distillation of the excess methanol and can be reused more times. The most important feature of this catalyst is that the catalytic activity is not affected by the content of free fatty acids (FFAs) and the content of water in the waste cooking oil and the transesterification can occur at a lower temperature (65°C), a lower methanol oil ratio (70:1) and be finished within a shorter time. The results illustrate that PW 12 acid is an excellent water‐tolerant and environmentally benign acid catalyst for production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Biotechnol. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2008;101: 93–100. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.