Solid Heterogeneous Catalysts For Production Of Biodiesel From Trans-Esterification Of Triglycerides With Methanol: A Review

摘要

Biodiesel is the main alternative to fossil diesel and it may be produced from different feed stocks such as semi refined vegetable oils, waste frying oils or animal fats. The new process technologies developed during the last years made it possible to produce biodiesel from recycled frying oils comparable in quality to that of virgin vegetable oil biodiesel with an added attractive advantage of being lower in price. Increasing number of researches focusing on the use of solid heterogeneous catalysts for the production of biodiesel provides evidence that these catalysts continue to evolve as viable alternatives. While liquid alkaline metal alkoxides remain to be appealing in the industries, it is expected that solid base catalyst will soon become more attractive due to the economics and environmental concern. Limited researches have shown that the conversion by solid base catalysts was comparable to that of the existing alkoxide system. In this review article various types of heterogeneous solid acids and bases in the production of biodiesel from trans-esterification of triglycerides and their yields and conversion from various catalytic systems are compared.