Effective heterogeneous transition metal glycerolates catalysts for one-step biodiesel production from low grade non-refined Jatropha oil and crude aqueous bioethanol

Abstract

The utilization of bioethanol as the alcohol source for biodiesel production is more environmentally advantageous over methanol owing to its lower toxicity, lower flammability and its sustainable supply from renewable agricultural resources. However, as the presence of water in crude bioethanol is the critical factor limiting the biodiesel production process, the energy-intensive and costly purification of bioethanol is necessary for biodiesel application. Manganese glycerolate (MnGly) is reported the first time here as a robust heterogeneous catalyst that exhibited over 90% conversion by using aqueous ethanol containing 80 wt.% of water in the production of fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE). The employment of 95 wt.% ethanol with respect to water could achieve 99.7% feedstock conversion in 6 hours under the optimal reaction conditions: reaction temperature (150 °C), feedstock-to-ethanol molar ratio (1:20) and catalyst loading (6 wt.%). Commercially available low grade crude bioethanol with the presence of impurities like sugars were applied which demonstrated remarkable catalytic activity in 24 hours. The high water tolerance of MnGly towards biodiesel production could eventually simplify the purification of bioethanol that consumes less energy and production cost.

Physiochemical characterization and support interaction of alumina‐supported heteropolyacid catalyst for biodiesel production

“…The second‐order model shows that for low methanol concentration, triglyceride conversion increases with increasing catalyst loadings. This improvement can ascribed to presence of the active sites on the catalyst . The catalyst loading is a significant factor and has a positive effect.…”

Technoeconomic analysis of Jatropha curcas integral valorization

“…The implementation of a new technology that can perform the esterification of the free fatty acids and the transesterification of triglycerides simultaneously using a heterogeneous catalyst could therefore noticeably improve the profitability of the process. The catalyst chosen to perform this study was manganese glycerolate, whose preparation and characterization is detailed elsewhere, and it permits the esterification and transesterification of crude jatropha oil to be conducted in one single step using bioethanol as a short‐chain alcohol. The best conditions to perform the reaction using 95 wt% ethanol are: 150 °C reaction temperature, 10 h reaction time, 20 : 1 bioethanol : oil ratio and 6 wt% of catalyst content, where crude jatropha oil conversion could reach 99.8% in one step .…”

“…The catalyst chosen to perform this study was manganese glycerolate, whose preparation and characterization is detailed elsewhere, and it permits the esterification and transesterification of crude jatropha oil to be conducted in one single step using bioethanol as a short‐chain alcohol. The best conditions to perform the reaction using 95 wt% ethanol are: 150 °C reaction temperature, 10 h reaction time, 20 : 1 bioethanol : oil ratio and 6 wt% of catalyst content, where crude jatropha oil conversion could reach 99.8% in one step . In conclusion, the use of a heterogeneous catalyst, which allows the esterification and transesterification of Jatropha oil to be performed in one step using bioethanol as a short‐chain alcohol together with electricity generation from JC waste means a significant advance in the way to make the most of this vegetable crop, both economically and environmentally.…”

“…This paper deals with the design and economic assessment of an integral valorization JC plant where the waste related to the extraction of the oil is used to generate electricity together with biodiesel derived from the simultaneaous esterification-transesterification process using bioethanol. The catalyst proposed for conducting this simultaneaous reaction is manganese glycerolate, which was used by Lau et al 15 This catalyst permits an oil conversion of 99.8% to be reached under the following reaction conditions: 150 °C reaction temperature, 10 h reaction time, 20 : 1 bioethanol : oil ratio and 6 wt% of catalyst content. In addition, the waste produced in the extraction of the oil can be treated and pelletized in order to increase the calorific capacity of the solid, which can be burnt to generate steam and subsequently electricity, making the process significantly more economic.…”

Preliminary Assessment of the Processing of High-Acidity Fatty Materials Using Solid Catalysts for the Obtainment of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

“…Several authors employed calcium diglycerolate for transesterification reactions, among them Lukic et al 2016, who also presented a review about the use of this solid (as well as calcium monoglycerolate) as catalyst towards these reactions. Other works reported the use of different metal glycerolates as catalysts for biodiesel production, such as glycerolates of potassium (Pradhan et al, 2017), lithium (Wang et al, 2015), manganese, iron, cobalt (Lau et al, 2016), calcium, strontium, barium (Lisboa et al, 2014) and zinc (Lau et al, 2016;Lisboa et al, 2014;Reinoso et al, 2014).…”