Biodiesel Production from Sunflower Oil by Sonochemically Synthesized K2O/Talc Heterogeneous Catalyst

Biodiesel is a non poisonous, renewable, and degradable fuel which is produced from vegtables oil, animals fat, cooking waste oil, and alge. In this work, heterogeneous catalyst K2O/Talc was prepared by ultrasonic method and was used for the production of biodiesel from sunflower oil transesterification with methanol. Techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for characterization to explore the catalyst structure. The XRD results confirmed the existence of K2O and talc phases in the catalyst. EDX analysis detected O, K, Si, and Mg elements on the catalyst surface. SEM analysis showed the K2O deposited on the surface of the talc. The transesterification reaction was done at 65°C, catalyst dose of 3 wt.%, and methanol to oil ratio of 12:1 for 3 h. The results showed that the yield of the production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) was 81.89% by K2O/Talc heterogeneous catalyst which was larger than 76.629% of homogeneous catalyst.

Keywords:

Biodiesel , Heterogeneous catalyst , Talc , Transesterification , Ultrasonic method