Biodiesel production using solid acid catalysts via esterification of oleic acid

Abstract

The sulfonated lignin catalysts were used as the catalyst in biodiesel production via esterification from oleic acid. The sulfonated lignin catalysts are prepared by 2 steps. First, lignin is extracted from the pretreatment process of corncob, then it was sulfonated with sulfuric acid. In this research, the effect of sulfonation temperature, sulfonation time, the amount of catalyst, molar ratio of methanol to oil, the catalyst stability, and catalyst reusability on biodiesel yield were studied by using solid acid catalyst via esterification from oleic acid. The catalysts are characterized by BET, XRD, FT-IR, SEM, NH3-TPD, and Titration Method while biodiesel is quantified by GC. The catalyst sulfonated of 110 ℃ 5 h had the highest biodiesel yield of 89.8 % under optimum condition at 8 h of reaction time, 15:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil, amount of catalyst 5wt%.