Solid Base Catalysts For The Transesterification Reaction Of Rape Oil

Biodiesel produced by transesterification of natural oil with alcohols is an environmental friendly alternative fuel. Compared with traditional homogeneous acid/base catalyst, using heterogeneous base catalyst can obtain pure product and avoid the problem of catalyst deposition. Researches on the heterogeneous catalyst, catalytic transesterification reaction and the properties of production are meaningful for the improvement of biodiesel production and its application.In this work, a series of supported CaO solid base catalysts were prepared. An investigation was made on the effects of the raw materials, supporter and preparing method on the catalytic activities, and it was found that an impregnation using Ca(OAc)2 solution as the impregnation medium and SiO2, Al2O3 as supporters was a good method to prepare the base catalysts. Optimal preparation conditions were impregnating once in 22.6% Ca(OAc)2 solution, drying at 80℃for 10 hours and calcining at 700℃. The catalyst active component can not be leached by methanol. Thermal treatment of the solid base catalyst in N2 ambience is needed before use because the catalyst is likely to be contaminated by adsorbing H2O and CO2 in air.The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and TG-DTG. The results show that CaO was well dispersed onto the catalyst support surface.The influences of reaction conditions were studied and the optimized parameters were: amount of catalyst (1%), molar ratio of methanol to oil (18:1), reaction...