SiO2-rich sugar cane bagasse ash catalyst for transesterification of palm oil

• Main Authors: Abdul Mutalib, Aunie Afifah (Author), Ibrahim, Mohd. Lokman (Author), Matmin, Juan (Author), Kassim, Muhd. Firdaus (Author), Mastuli, Mohd. Sufri (Author), Yap, Yun Hin Taufiq (Author), Mohd. Shohaimi, Norshahidatul Akmar (Author), Islam, Aminul (Author), Tan, Yie Hua (Author), Mohd. Kaus, Noor Haida (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer, 2020.
• Subjects: QD Chemistry
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 This study demonstrated the performance of the sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) impregnated with calcium oxide (CaO) as a novel heterogeneous basic catalyst in biodiesel production. The SCBA was prepared by calcination for 2 h at 500 to 800 °C and impregnated with CaO loadings (10 to 40 wt.%). The prepared SCBA/CaO catalyst was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature programmed desorption of carbon dioxide (TPD-CO2), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface characteristics. A series of transesterification reactions were conducted to evaluate the performance of the catalysts. As a result, highest FAME yield of 93.8% was obtained by using SCBA600°C CaO(40%) catalyst at 20:1 methanol-to-oil molar ratio, reaction temperature of 65 °C, with 6 wt.% catalyst in 3 h. Besides, the catalyst can be reused up to 5 reaction cycles with biodiesel yield of 93.0% and 70.3% at first and fifth cycles, respectively. In this work, it was found that the natural SiO2 in the SCBA has a significant role to enhance the catalytic performance and reduce the catalyst's deactivation drawback by minimizing the leaching of active sites.