Sulfonated carbohydrate derived catalysts from starch, cellulose, sucrose and D-glucose have been widely used in biodiesel production processes as they are low cost. In addition, these materials have been demonstrated to have remarkable catalytic performance for the esterification of free fatty acids [1]. However, these catalysts normally suffer from low acid density and diffusional limitations. Mesoporous solid acid catalysts, derived from starch to overcome these disadvantages, are obtained by the expansion of starch, including gelatinization, retrogradation and dehydration via solvent exchange, followed by pyrolysis and sulfonation. The resulted catalysts are highly active in esterification of oleic acid with methanol.
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