SYNTHESIS OF HETEROGENEOUS MESOPOROUS PHOSPHATE GRAFTED CaO –MoO3–SBA-15 NANOCOMPOSITE OXIDE CATALYST FOR SUSTAINABLE BIOMASS CONVERSION TO BIODIESEL.

ABSTRACT The current commercial production of biodiesel is via transesterification reaction, catalysed by homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts. The most commonly used catalyst in biodiesel production is the homogeneous alkaline catalysts such as NaOH, KOH, CH3ONa and CH3OK. The choice of these catalysts is based on their higher kinetic reaction rates. However because of high cost of refined feedstocks and difficulties associated with the use of homogeneous alkaline catalysts to transesterify low quality feedstocks for biodiesel production, the development of various heterogeneous catalysts have attracted great attention in recent times. The development of heterogeneous catalyst such as solid and enzymes catalysts could overcome most of the problems associated with homogeneous catalysts. Therefore this study critically analyses the effects of catalysts on biodiesel production using findings available in open literature. This review revealed research areas to explore and improve the catalysts performance for biodiesel fuel production. The main aim of this project works however is to develop efficient and environmentally benign heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production. For this purpose, heterogeneous CaO–MoO3/PO4–SBA-15/CaO–MoO3–SBA-15 catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method, and the prepared catalyst was subsequently functionalized by phosphate ion. The synthesized catalyst was tested for the transesterification process of waste cooking oil to produce biodiesel. The synthesized solid catalyst was characterized using different analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, sorptometric technique, and optical microscopy techniques. The catalytic activity was dependent on the catalyst modification and calcination temperature. The solid catalyst, CaO–MoO3/PO4 calcined at 823 K, showed very high catalytic activity. A 3 wt % use of catalyst with methanol/oil molar ratio of 6:1 at reflux of methanol, gave the oil conversion of 99.4 % after 6 h of reaction.