Abstract
Investigation was conducted on bauxite mixed with Li2CO3 as alkali metal catalysts for biodiesel production. Bauxite contains a high percentage of Si and Al compounds among products. Because of the high expense of commercial materials (SiO2, Al2O3) that makes them not economical, the method was very recently improved by replacing commercial materials with Si and Al from bauxite. This is one of the easiest methods for preparing heterogeneous transesterification catalysts, through one-pot blending, grinding bauxite with Li2CO3, and heating at 800 °C for 4 h. The prepared solid-base alkali metal catalyst was characterized in terms of its physical and chemical properties using X-ray powder diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The optimal conditions for the transesterification procedure are to mix methanol oil by molar ratio 9:1, under 65 °C, with catalyst amount 3 wt.%. The procedure is suitable for transesterifying oil to fatty acid methyl ester in the 96% range.
Highlights
The need for renewable energy sources to meet ever greater energy requirements is becoming increasingly urgent [1]
The current process used for producing fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) is the transesterification of vegetable oil catalyzed by alkaline catalysts
X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) of bauxite mixed with Li2 CO3 at different calcination temperatures
Summary
The need for renewable energy sources to meet ever greater energy requirements is becoming increasingly urgent [1]. The current process used for producing fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) is the transesterification of vegetable oil catalyzed by alkaline catalysts This reaction is associated with some difficulties. By the combination of silicon and lithium carbonate, our previous research discovered that the lithium silicate compound presented high basicity strength, high chemical stability, and thermo-stability Such characteristics show extremely high applicability in the catalysis field, especially in transesterification [7]. The use of low-cost materials in the manufacturing process is valuable for industrial applications, for producing FAMEs through transesterification of various vegetable oils, where massive quantities of solid-alkali catalyst are processed [13,14,15,16]. The influence of various experimental methods—such as the catalyst amount, methanol–vegetable oil proportions, and catalyst reusability—on efficiency was evaluated to detect the optimum conditions for the study of biodiesel production
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