Abstract
Abstract Niobic acid, Nb2O5.nH2O (Niobia HY-340), was successfully applied to the industrial production of biodiesel from the esterification of free fatty acids of palm oil at Agropalma plant, located in the city of Belem, State of Para, in the northern part of Brazil. The biodiesel plant has a production capacity of approximately 25,000 metric tons of biodiesel per year and it is the first plant in the world to use a heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. As a solid acid catalyst niobic acid was very effective, presenting superior performance to commercial acid zeolites. The Agropalma plant started its operation in April 2005 and since then they are continuously producing biodiesel, branded as PalmDiesel®, of extremely high quality exceeding by far the strict European EN 14214 regulation.
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