Novel hybrid materials based on mesoporous Gamma-Alumina@ Riboflavin@ vanadium for biodiesel production

Abstract

In the present study, Mesoporous Gamma-Alumina@ Riboflavin@ Vanadium heterogeneous nanocatalyst was successfully synthesized and applied to generate biodiesel from oleic acid using an esterification process. In this sense, the catalyst surface was characterized using XRD, FTIR, TGA, BET, SEM, X-ray mapping, EDX, and ICP analyses. The BMA (Boehmite-based Mesoporous Alumina) materials exhibited high activity for the esterification of oleic acid. Moreover, the catalyst can be simply recovered and efficiently reutilized several times without significant loss in its activity. Furthermore, the obtained results show that the BMA materials can be used for appropriate and rapid biodiesel production. The physicochemical properties of biodiesel such as flash point, cloud point, Ash content, and kinematic viscosity were examined on the biodiesel to the standard ASTM methods. Significantly, the resulting biodiesel is pure, which illustrates excellent physical and chemical properties meeting international standards.