Transesterification Of Soybean Oil Catalyzed By Sulfated Zirconia

Two sulfated zirconias were synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. They were used as catalysts in the alcoholysis of soybean oil and in the esterification of oleic acid. Using sulfated zirconia prepared by the solvent-free method (S-ZrO2) as catalyst, the alcoholysis conversions of soybean oil under optimized conditions (120 °C, 1 h and 5 wt% of catalyst) were 98.6% (methanolysis) and 92% (ethanolysis), respectively. The esterification of oleic acid with methanol was complete after 2 h. Zirconia sulfated by standard methods (SZ) had low activity in the methanolysis of soybean oil (conversion of 8.5%) and conventional zirconia (NS) was inactive for methanolysis under the conditions optimized for S-ZrO2. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.991466086613Antunes, O.A.C., Interfaces with the industry (2005) Quim. Nova, 28, pp. S64-S75AOCS, Method Ca 5a-40: free fatty acids. Method Cd 1d-92: iodine value of fats and oils. Wijs Method. Method Ca 2e-84: water content (1998) Official Methods and Recommended Practices of the American Oil Chemists' Society. fifth ed., , Firestone D. (Ed), American Oil Chemists' Society, Champaign, Illinois, USAArdizzone, S., Bianchi, C.L., Cappelletti, G., Porta, F., Liquid-phase catalytic activity of sulfated zirconia from sol-gel precursors: the role of the surface features (2004) J. Catal., 227, pp. 470-478Corma, A., Solid acid catalysts (1997) Curr. Opin. Solid State Mater. Sci., 2, pp. 63-75Furuta, S., Matsuhashi, H., Arata, K., Biodiesel fuel production with solid superacid catalysis in fixed bed reactor under atmospheric pressure (2004) Catal. Commun., 5, pp. 721-723Gelbard, G., Brès, O., Vargas, R.M., Vielfaure, F., Schuchardt, U.F., H-1 nuclear-magnetic-resonance determination of the yield of the transesterification of rapeseed oil with methanol (1995) J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 72, pp. 1239-1241Gore, R.B., Thomson, W.J., Pulsed gas-phase alkylation of isobutane/2-butene over sulfated zirconia (1998) Appl. Catal. A, 168, pp. 23-32Kiss, A.A., Dimian, A.C., Rothenberg, G., Solid acid catalysts for biodiesel production - towards sustainable energy (2006) Adv. Synth. Catal., 348, pp. 75-81Li, X.B., Nagaoka, K., Simon, L.J., Olindo, R., Lercher, J.A., Hofmann, A., Sauer, J., Oxidative activation of n-butane on sulfated zirconia (2005) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127, pp. 16159-16166Lopez, D.E., Goodwin, J.G., Bruce, D.A., Lotero, E., Transesterification of triacetin with methanol on solid acid and base catalysts (2005) Appl. Catal. A, 295, pp. 97-105Lotero, E., Liu, Y.J., Lopez, D.E., Suwannakarn, K., Bruce, D.A., Goodwin, J.G., Synthesis of biodiesel via acid catalysis (2005) Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 44, pp. 5353-5363Mittelbach, M., Silberholz, A., Koncar, M., 1996. Novel aspects concerning acid-catalyzed alcoholysis of triglycerides. Oils-Fats- Lipids. Proceedings of the 21st World Congress of the International Society for Fats Research, The Hague, October, pp. 497-499Pinto, A.C., Guarieiro, L.L.N., Rezende, M.J.C., Ribeiro, N.M., Torres, E.A., Lopes, W.A., Pereira, P.A.D., de Andrade, J.B., Biodiesel: an overview (2005) J. Brazil Chem. Soc., 16, pp. 1313-1330Schmidt, F., New catalyst preparation technologies - observed from an industrial viewpoint (2001) Appl. Catal. A, 221, pp. 15-21Schuchardt, U., Ribeiro, M.L., Goncalves, A.R., A indústria petroquímica no próximo século: como substituir o petróleo como matéria-prima? (2001) Quim. Nova, 24, pp. 247-251Schuchardt, U., Sercheli, R., Vargas, R.M., Transesterification of vegetable oils: a review (1998) J. Brazil Chem. Soc., 9, pp. 199-210Sun, Y., Ma, S., Du, Y., Yuan, L., Wang, S., Yang, J., Deng, F., Xiao, F.-S., Solvent-free preparation of nanosized sulfated zirconia with Brønsted acidic sites from a simple calcination (2005) J. Phys. Chem. B, 109, pp. 2567-2572Tanabe, K., Hölderich, W.F., Industrial application of solid acid-base catalysts (1999) Appl. Catal. A, 181, pp. 399-434Vicente, G., Coteron, A., Martinez, M., Aracil, J., Application of the factorial design of experiments and response surface methodology to optimize biodiesel production (1998) Ind. Crop. Prod., 8, pp. 29-35Vicente, G., Martinez, M., Aracil, J., Integrated biodiesel production: a comparison of different homogeneous catalysts systems (2004) Bioresource Technol., 92 (3), pp. 297-305Waghoo, G., Jayaram, R.V., Joshi, M.V., Heterogeneous catalytic conversions with hydrous SnO2 (1999) Synth. Commun., 29, pp. 513-520Yadav, G.D., Kirthivasan, N., Single-pot synthesis of methyl tert-butyl ether from tert-butyl alcohol and methanol - dodecatungstophosphoric acid supported on clay as an efficient catalyst (1995) J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 2, pp. 203-20