Zinc glycerolate as a novel heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters

Transformation cycle of the catalyst in different reaction medium. •Transesterification of soybean oil (SO) with methanol.•Zinc glycerolate was used as heterogeneous catalyst at 100–140°C.•Food-grade oil, acid oil and water-content oil were used.•Zinc glycerolate was active: 84–99.5% SO conversion w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Environmental, 2014-01, Vol.144, p.308-316
Main Authors: Reinoso, Deborath M., Damiani, Daniel E., Tonetto, Gabriela M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiesel
Catalysis
Catalysts
Chemistry
Conversion
Esters
Exact sciences and technology
Fatty acids
General and physical chemistry
Heterogeneous catalyst
Selectivity
Soybean oil
Soybeans
Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry
Transesterification
Zinc
Zinc glycerolate
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Summary:Transformation cycle of the catalyst in different reaction medium. •Transesterification of soybean oil (SO) with methanol.•Zinc glycerolate was used as heterogeneous catalyst at 100–140°C.•Food-grade oil, acid oil and water-content oil were used.•Zinc glycerolate was active: 84–99.5% SO conversion with 48–94% FAME yield.•Zinc glycerolate was stable (constant activity in 5 consecutive tests). In this work, zinc glycerolate (ZnGly) is studied as a new catalyst for an environmentally friendly production of biodiesel. The solid was prepared by a simple procedure, characterized and studied in the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol. ZnGly was able to convert soybean oil into fatty acid methyl esters with 66–76% yield and up to 95–97% triglyceride (TG) conversion in the 100–140°C reaction temperature range studied. The catalyst showed a long life and could be reused for five catalytic cycles without deactivation or selectivity loss. The catalyst exhibited good tolerance toward 0.5wt.% water, without important changes in the TG conversion, but with a 23% decrease in FAME yield. In the presence of 10wt.% fatty acids, ZnGly showed an almost complete TG conversion with an increase in FAME yield of 51% (93% FAME selectivity at 50min reaction time). At 140°C and in acid oil, ZnGly can be easily transformed into Zn carboxylate and partially re-generated in the presence of glycerol.
ISSN:0926-3373
1873-3883
DOI:10.1016/j.apcatb.2013.07.026