Studies on the Catalyzing Transesterification of Soybean Oil with Methanol for Biodiesel Using a Novel Porous CaO Microsphere Catalyst

Abstract

A novel porous CaO microsphere catalyst was synthesized by calcining spherical CaCO3 precursor which was prepared easily by mixing CaCl2 with Na2CO3. After characterized by scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction analysis, the synthesized CaO was studied on Studies on the catalyzing transesterification of soybean oil with methanol for biodiesel. The effects of calcining temperature, reaction time and temperature, amounts of catalyst and methanol on the catalytic activity of CaO microsphere had been evaluated by catalyzing transesterification of soybean oil with methanol for biodiesel. It expressed excellent catalytic activity with a transesterification yield of more than 98% at 65 °C in one hour with 3 wt% of CaO microsphere calcined at 800 °C.