Investigation of biodiesel production by HUSY and Ce/HUSY zeolites: Influence of structural and acidity parameters

In this work, activities of HUSY and Ce/HUSY zeolites were studied in transesterification cycles of soybean oil and ethanol to produce biodiesel. The characterization of the materials was performed by FT-IR, XRD, BET method and pyridine adsorption followed by thermal analyses. TG/DTG results indicated a decrease of acid sites for both samples after each reaction cycle. However, Ce/HUSY zeolite showed a superior stabilization of acidic sites after three catalytic cycles and intermediary activation procedures. Biodiesel production exhibited high conversion levels (>96%) for both zeolites in all transesterification cycles. Surface area and pore volume measurements evidenced that cerium incorporation reduced the number of acid sites by interacting with OH groups in the micropore and external area of the zeolitic surface. This interaction resulted in an acid and structural stability, which provided a better activity (99%) than HUSY (96%). The higher conversion values obtained by zeolites showed a final product with a different distribution when compared with the traditional transesterification process. The identification of free fatty acids, diethyl and glycerol ethers in the final products and the reduction of unsaturated compounds indicated that parallel reactions also occurred in the studied systems. Nonetheless, the biofuel produced showed high ester content and did not present changes in its calorific power.

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► HUSY and Ce/USY zeolites were active catalysts for biodiesel production.
► Impregnation with cerium leads to an acid and structural stability.
► Biodiesel production for Ce/HUSY was kept above 99% during three reaction cycles.
► A distinct biodiesel profile was produced by the zeolites due to side reactions.
► The biofuel showed high ester content and no change in its calorific power.