Transesterification of palm oil and esterification of palm fatty acid in near- and super-critical methanol with SO4-ZrO2 catalysts
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Author list: Petchmala A., Laosiripojana N., Jongsomjit B., Goto M., Panpranot J., Mekasuwandumrong O., Shotipruk A.
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2010
Journal: Fuel: The Science and Technology of Fuel and Energy (0016-2361)
Volume number: 89
Issue number: 9
Start page: 2387
End page: 2392
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0016-2361
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
Sulfated zirconia (SO4-ZrO2) catalysts, prepared with three different sulfur loading contents (0.75%, 1.8% and 2.5%) at two calcination temperatures (500 ฐC and 700 ฐC), were tested for use in the transesterification of purified palm oil (PPO) and the esterification of palm fatty acid (PFA) in near-critical and super-critical methanol. Techniques including BET, XRD, NH3- and CO2-TPD revealed that the sulfur content and calcination temperature strongly affects the catalyst base-acid site, specific surface area, average pore size, phase structure, and thus the catalytic reactivity. The most suitable sulfur loading content was found to be 1.8% and the optimum calcination temperature 500 ฐC. The results show that the use of SO4-ZrO2 reduces esterification reaction times, the amount of methanol necessary and the required reaction temperature. The reactions at 250 ฐC in the presence of the SO 4-ZrO2 catalyst at 0.5 w/w% catalyst to PPO or PFA were found to give the highest FAMEs conversions. Under these conditions, 90% and 75% conversions were achieved within 10 and 1 min from PPO (at 25:1 MeOH:PPO molar ratio) and PFA (at 6:1 MeOH:PFA molar ratio), respectively. ฉ 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Sulfated zirconia, Super-critical
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