Biodiesel production from straight vegetable oils using heterogeneous catalysis

Abstract

With the increase of energy consumption worldwide especially in the transportation sector and with the decrease in Petroleum reserves worldwide, focuses are made on finding an ecofriendly renewable energy resource. Biodiesel production from vegetable using heterogeneous is a promising pathway for a cost efficient energy production. Even though many cost efficient homogeneous transesterification processes are currently in use to produce high biodiesel yields from Waste Vegetable Oils, however the usage of reusable heterogeneous catalyst for this application is gaining more interest from an environmental point of view SBA-15 catalysts were prepared by two-solvent method with three Ni loadings 5-1- 15 %. These catalysts were characterized by N2sorption, TEM and TPR. SBA-15 maintained its textural properties with the addition of Nickel oxide and a high dispersion of Ni is observed inside the pores. TEM showed an average particle size of 7.7, 14.8 and 25 nm for 5-10-15 % Ni respectively. The activity of these catalysts was tested in transesterification of Canola Oil and compared to KOH/Alumina, CuO/Alumina, and Ni-Mg/Aerosil. Heterogeneous catalyst tested we not as active and selective as homogeneous catalysts. A pretreatment of commercial oil might be essential even with low FFA content. For the purpose of comparison between liquid phase and gas phase reactions, Ni/ SBA-15 were tested in Dry Reforming of Methane and showed high activity and selectivity.