Transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel using SrO nanoparticles as a solid base catalyst

SrO nano oxides was prepared by sol-gel method and used as a basic heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification of soybean oil with methanol to methyl esters (biodiesel). The catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. It was found that using 1% (based on the soybean oil weight) of the catalyst, methanol to oil molar ratio of 15 produced biodiesel in excess of 99% at 60 C within 15 min.

Keywords:

Biodiesel , SrO nano oxides , Tranesterification , solid catalyst