Transesterification of Soybean Oil Over Me/Al2O3 (Me = Na, Ba, Ca, and K) Catalysts and Monolith K/Al2O3-Cordierite

Abstract

Four different Me/Al2O3 (Me = Na, Ba, Ca, and K) powder catalysts prepared by incipient-wetness impregnation, and a K/Al2O3-cordierite monolithic catalyst produced by the dipcoating technique were used for biodiesel production. The samples were characterized and studied in the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol at 120 °C and 500 rpm, with a alcohol/oil molar ratio = 32, and a catalyst load = 1 wt% for the powder catalyst and 0.5 wt% for the monolith. The Ca/Al2O3, Na/Al2O3 and K/Al2O3 powder catalysts reported a FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) formation of 94.7, 97.1, and 98.9% respectively after 6 h of reaction. On the other hand, Ba/Al2O3 showed little activity (7.6%). The leaching of the alkali and alkaline earth metal species during reaction was important, what indicates that the activity could be explained in terms of a homogeneous–heterogeneous catalyst effect. When the monolithic sample and the powder catalyst were compared (under identical reaction conditions), the production of FAME for the latter was 89.5–59.1% for the monolithic catalyst. After two consecutive runs, the monolithic catalyst presented a partial deactivation of 8% in the FAME yield. The present work shows that the use of monolithic catalysts in the transesterification of vegetable oils is a viable alternative.