Abstract
Chitosan, an abundant biopolymer extracted from crustacean shells, can be used as a structuring agent by the insertion of calcium oxide and used as a catalyst in transesterification reactions. These calcium-incorporated chitosan spheres were calcined in order to obtain a porous calcium catalyst without organic material. The materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, temperature-programmed desorption of CO2, scanning electron microscopy and specific surface area analysis. Afterwards the calcined calcium/chitosan spheres were used in the transesterification reaction of sunflower oil with methanol. The conversion of sunflower oil to methyl esters (YFAME), under optimized reaction conditions, which were determined by factorial experimental design (XMR, 1:9; XCAT, 3 wt%; time, 4 h; temperature, 60 °C; magnetic stirring, 1000 rpm), was 56.12 ± 0.32 wt%. These results show that chitosan can be used as a precursor for the formation of calcium/chitosan spheres, yielding a porous calcium oxide (with higher surface area) that can be used as an alkaline catalyst for biodiesel production. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry
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