Kinetics of vegetable oil transesterificationcatalyzed by magnesium oxide supported on cashew nut shell liquid-templatedmesoporoussilica
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
In this work, transesterification of jatropha oil using magnesium oxide supported on
cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) mesoporoustemplated silica (MTS) and its kinetics
were investigated. The support, MTS (CNSL) was impregnated at three different ratios
(1:1, 1:2, and 1:3) with MgO catalyst using Mg(NO3)2.6H2O as a precursor salt. The
supported catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation. The catalysts were characterized
with nitrogen adsorption/desorption studies, Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy
Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform
Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The developed catalysts were evaluated in the
transesterification reaction of jatropha oil in a batch reactor. A central composite
rotatable design was used to optimize the effect of reaction temperature, reaction time
and catalyst concentration. All variables were found to significantly affect the methyl
ester yield where the most effective factors were found to be the catalyst concentration
and reaction temperature followed by reaction time. The maximum conversions of
98.7% and 91.5% were found with 3MgO/MTS (CNSL) and 2MgO/MTS (CNSL)
respectively, followed by the 1MgO/MTS (CNSL) catalyst with 81.6%. Rate constants
for the three developed catalysts were 0.02831, 0.02886, 0.02896 min-1 for 1MgO/MTS
(CNSL), 2MgO/MTS (CNSL), 3MgO/MTS (CNSL), respectively. It was concluded
from the results that, 3MgO/MTS (CNSL) was an effective catalyst for jatropha
transesterification reaction. The developed catalysts were found not to leach in the
methanol, could be recovered, reused and still gave reasonable methyl ester yields.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF TP156.S45A62)
Keywords
Transesterification, Magnesium oxide, Jatropha oil, Vegetable oil
Citation
Andrew, A (2012) Kinetics of vegetable oil transesterificationcatalyzed by magnesium oxide supported on cashew nut shell liquid-templatedmesoporoussilica,Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.