Transesterification of triglycerides presented in acid oil for biodiesel production using a heterogeneous catalyst

J.M. MARCHETTI; A.F. ERRAZU

Málaga-Benalmádena-Costa. España

Conferencia; XXI SICAT; 2008

Biodiesel appears as one promising alternative to substitute diesel fuels due to its environmental advantages and because of the evolution of the petroleum market. However the mayor drawback is the cost of the refine oil. Therefore different raw materials are being used.                 Frying oils appears as one of the possible alternatives, however, these compound normally have a high amount of free fatty acid, making impossible to employ a basic homogeneous catalyst, normally NaOH. On this work we study the transesterification reaction for biodiesel production using a solid resin. The effects of the reaction temperature, the initial amount of free fatty acid, the molar ratio of alcohol/oil and the type of catalyst (homogeneous or heterogeneous) over the main reaction have been analyzed. An ideal frying oil was made by mixing 10% w/w of oleic acid and 90% w/w of sunflower refine oil. Ethanol was employed as alcohol. The use of a base solid resin appears as an alternative catalyst for the transesterification reaction; reaching a final conversion over 90%