Potassium and Calcium-Based Heterogeneous Catalysts for Transesterification of Soybean Oil

JOSE FERNANDO RUGGERA; MARISA B. NAVAS; MARCOS SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ; ILEANA D. LICK; JOSE ARACIL MIRA; MERCEDES MARTINEZ RODRIGUEZ; MONICA L. CASELLA

Lyon

Congreso; 11th European Congress on Catalysis EuropaCat-XI; 2013

Societe Chimique de France (SCF) - Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Internal combustion engines will continue to be the dominant transport technology available in the near future, using mostly liquid fuels produced from both fossil and renewable sources. Biofuels provide the best option to re-place a significant share of the fossil fuels. The challenge therefore is to increase substantially the production of biofuels by using innovative feedstock, processes and technologies, which are both competitive and sustainable. The transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats to biodiesel by chemical catalysts, especially in the presence of a strong basic solution, such as NaOH and KOH, has been widely used in the industrial production of biodiesel. Such basic solutions can transform triglycerides to their corresponding fatty acid methyl esters, however, separating the catalyst from a mixture of reactants and products is technically difficult [1]. Solid base catalysts are much more preferred due to better recovery and recycling. Alkaline and alkaline earth metal oxides have been shown to have excellent catalytic activity and stability for the production of biodiesel. Among the alcohols that can be used in the transesterification reaction are methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, and amylalcohol. Methanol is used most fre-quently, but as it is derived from the fossil fuel industry is not seen as sustainable in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, butanol obtained through biomass fermentation for its use in the generation of biofuels, is receiving a renewed interest [2, 3]. As a contribution to the subject, this paper examines the use of potassium and calcium oxides supported on ã-Al2O3 as heterogeneous basic catalysts in the transesterification of soybean oil with both methanol and butanol.