Abstract
A heterogeneous solid acid catalyst was synthesized using tire polymer waste (TPW) for the esterification of waste chicken fat (CF) enriched with fatty acids. The TPW was carbonized and functionalized with concentrated sulfuric acid under various sulfonation conditions to obtain a sulfonated tire polymer char (TPC-SO3H) catalyst. The TPC-SO3H catalyst was further characterized via acid-base titration (to ascertain the total concentration of acid), X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The esterification reaction conditions of extracted chicken fat with methanol and the viability of catalyst reuse were also investigated. The composition of the free fatty acid (FFA) decreased to below 1% under optimum reaction conditions of 5% TPC-SO3H catalyst, the methanol-to-CF molar-ratio of 15:1, and a reaction time of 120 min at 70 °C. The catalyst preserved its conversion efficiency above 90%, even after three cycles. The results demonstrate that the catalyst is applicable and efficient in the esterification of raw materials containing various fatty acid compositions since different carbonized materials have distinct abilities to combine acid groups. Furthermore, after de-acidification of CF-FFA by the as-prepared TPC-SO3H catalyst, the neutral CF was transesterified completely to biodiesel and characterized via Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy and physicochemical analysis. This work unveils a promising technique for utilizing tire waste generated in large quantities for the development of a novel heterogeneous acid catalyst for biodiesel production.
Highlights
Biodiesel is an eco-friendly and efficient fuel, that is regarded nowadays as an alternate “direct-pour” fuel to petroleum-derived diesel
Sanjeevannavar et al employed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an additive in the biodiesel synthesized from Jatropha oil via transesterification in the presence of a catalyst to evaluate the performance of a four-stroke single-cylinder diesel engine [12]
To overcome all the above-mentioned drawbacks involved with the conventional recycling methods for tire waste, we propose a novel approach to utilize the tire polymer waste (TPW) for synthesizing high-capacity and cost-effective sulfonated tire polymer char (TPC-SO3H) catalyst which can efficiently synthesize biodiesel out of chicken fat
Summary
Biodiesel is an eco-friendly and efficient fuel, that is regarded nowadays as an alternate “direct-pour” fuel to petroleum-derived diesel. Their study suggested that the blended fuel comprising 70% diesel, 20% palm biodiesel, and 10% bioethanol exhibited the best performance among all the employed bioethanol-based blends by enhancing the BTE and BSFC significantly while reducing the NOx emission This fuel blend ameliorated the neat diesel cloud point. Researchers attempted to ameliorate the biodiesel properties and enhance its performance by adding nanoparticles in the form of additives [14,15,16,17,18] They demonstrated that adding oxygenated, metallic, non-metallic, and organic nanoparticles with petroleum diesel–biodiesel fuel blends improved the thermophysical characteristics of the fuel, fuel mixture stabilization, and the associated heat transfer rate. It improved the engine performance and reduced harmful exhaust emissions
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