Transesterification of oils over mesoporous materials

Abstract

Biodiesel is a non-fossil fuel used as a promising surrogate for petroleum diesel, with almost similar but rather enhanced properties, mainly the phasing out of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the environment. It consists of alkyl esters and it emanates from vegetable oils and animal fats through their transesterification reaction with alcohols. This report covers an inquiry of biodiesel. The properties are presented in addition to the procedure for its synthesis which essentially stands in need of the assistance of a catalyst. Homogeneous acid and basecatalyzed processes are first described and the work is then zoomed in on the use of heterogeneous catalysts, chiefly the Nickel catalyst supported on SBA-15. Ni-SBA-15 is synthesized and is further subjected to characterization techniques such as Temperature Programmed Reduction (TPR), N2-sorbtion, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) as well as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), for the purpose of elaborating the properties of this catalyst. Afterwards, the biodiesel test is performed and the results obtained are insignificant, associated with the formation of soap, which was not mentioned in any of the existing literatures. This is due to many factors which comprise the absence of favorable conditions of pressure along with the unavailability of gas chromatography, considering the laboratory capacity limitations; besides, Ni-SBA-15 pertains to heterogeneous catalysts which are challenging in terms of their metal loading and their activity in the biodiesel synthesis.