Premium
Iron Oxide Catalysts Supported on Porous Silica for the Production of Biodiesel from Crude Jatropha Oil
Author(s) -
Suzuta Tetsuya,
Toba Makoto,
Abe Yohko,
Yoshimura Yuji
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-012-2101-3
Subject(s) - transesterification , catalysis , methanol , biodiesel production , biodiesel , raw material , chemistry , yield (engineering) , organic chemistry , fatty acid methyl ester , nuclear chemistry , materials science , metallurgy
A heterogeneous catalyst, FeO x /SiO 2 , prepared by the pore‐filling method, was found to be active in the transesterification of crude Jatropha oil with methanol. When the transesterification reaction was carried out with a reaction temperature of 220 °C, a catalyst amount of 15 wt%, a methanol/oil molar ratio of 218:1, and a reaction time of 3 h, the yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) in the product exceeded 99.0 %, and met with EN standards for allowable contents of glycerine and mono‐, di‐, and tri‐glycerides. The correlation between the FAME production activity and measured acidity of the FeO x /SiO 2 catalysts showed that the transesterification reaction was promoted via the acidic function of these catalysts, which are less inhibited by coexisting free fatty acids in the feedstock triglycerides.