Biodiesel production via heterogeneous base catalyst from seashells continuous fixed bed reactor

Abstract

The present thesis was studied by formulation of heterogeneous base catalysts from waste mixed seashells for transesterification of palm oil with methanol in a fixed bed reactor. The catalysts were prepared by dissolution-precipitation method. Typically, the calcined seashells were mixed with zinc nitrate as a strength component, aluminium oxide as a supported material and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) as a plasticizer in a solution of nitric acid. Effects of the formulation conditions in extrudates catalyst, including extruder type, amount of HEC and calcination temperature on the physicochemical and the catalytic properties were investigated. The properties of the catalysts were studied by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric/ differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), N2 adsorption-desorption measurement and CO2-pluse chemisorption analysis. The suitable condition for the catalyst preparation is the weight ratio of seashells/Al2O3 with 1:1, the amount of HEC with 3 wt.% of total solid, single screw extruder and calcination temperature of 300 °C. The extrudate catalysts attained gave the highest and stable FAME yield (95 wt.% and 24 h, respectively) attained from the transesterification under the suitable transesterification condition at methanol/oil molar ratio, 30; temperature, 65 ºC; premixing with methyl esters, 30 wt.% of catalyst extrydates and total flow rate, 2.0 mL min-1.