In this work, we investigated a series
of carbon nitride-based
nanomaterials (CNs), i.e., H-PHI, mpg-C3N4,
PCN, Na-PHI, Mg-PHI, CN-OA-m, and LiK-PHI, as candidate catalysts
for biodiesel synthesis. The heterogeneous catalyst design based on
CNs, with tunable catalytic sites and inexpensive syntheses, can allow
biodiesel production to become a more sustainable process, helping
to meet future energy demands. Transesterification of canola oil with
methanol using LiK-PHI as a catalyst, under the optimized conditions,
displayed the best performance for biodiesel production with 94% of
yield and catalyst loading of 1.6 wt %. The outstanding performance
exhibited
by LiK-PHI is owed to this sample presenting the highest concentrations
of basic sites, among the CN materials tested, directly correlated
with the alkali metal content. This is an important information to
understand the very nature of these basic active sites, which were
exploited in this work to boost the catalyst efficiency among the
best in the field. Moreover, the biodiesel produced under the best
conditions, using LiK-PHI, was verified in relation to the number
of esters and glycerides in this product. All values are within the
values previously established by legislation, 97.6% ± 0.1 and
0.20%, respectively, which indicates the high quality of biodiesel
produced.