Biodiesel production from canola oil using novel Li/TiO2 as a heterogeneous catalyst prepared via impregnation method

This study focused on the development of heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification process by implanting lithium onto TiO2 by wet impregnation process. A series of Li/TiO2 was prepared with different amounts of Li (20, 30, 40 wt %) and at different calcination temperatures (450, 600, 750). The Li/TiO2 catalysts were characterized by several spectroscopic and analytical techniques like XRD, FT-IR, BET, TG-DSC and FESEM. The XRD study revealed that the insertion of Li improved the catalyst efficiency without any alteration in structure of TiO2. Li/TiO2 catalysts with 30%w/w Li and calcined at 600 °C was found to be the most efficient with 98% transesterification yield. The best performance of catalyst was achieved with methanol to oil ratio of 24:1, 5 wt % of catalyst loading, at 55 °C reaction temperatures for 3 h of reaction time. The kinetic studies revealed the transesterification process was compatible with the zero order model. However the reusability decreases after every successive use.