Mesoporous Li/ZrO2 as a solid base catalyst for biodiesel production from transesterification of soybean oil with methanol

Mesoporous 0.1M/ZrO2 (M = Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca) solid base catalysts were successfully synthesized by using a sol–gel method. The catalytic activities of the catalysts were tested via transesterification reactions of soybean oil with methanol. Both 0.1Mg/ZrO2 and 0.1Ca/ZrO2 catalysts showed no catalytic activity in this reaction, while Li, K modified ZrO2 catalysts achieved high yield of biodiesel production. Besides, under the optimum reaction conditions, a FAME yield of as high as 98.2% was achieved on 0.1Li/ZrO2 catalyst calcined at 650 °C.

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► Mesoporous 0.1M/ZrO2 (M=Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca) were synthesized by sol-gel method.
► High yields of biodiesel production were achieved on 0.1Li/ZrO2 and 0.1K/ZrO2.
► FAME yields on different catalysts were correlated to their basic properties.