The study of biodiesel production using CaO as a heterogeneous catalytic reaction

With the aim of developing a process of biodiesel production that is environmentally benign much interest has been focused on the use of solid base catalysts, such as calcium oxide, for the transesterification of vegetable oils with methanol. In the study reported herein a recycling reactor was used in bench scale, with the capacity to produce 3 L of biodiesel. The reactor was designed especially for this research study. A full 23 factorial plan was used to evaluate the process parameters related to this study, in particular, the catalyst concentration, the alcohol to oil molar ratio and the reaction time. Using this equipment for the transesterification reaction resulted in the recovery of the excess alcohol. The reaction products were characterized using gas chromatography and liquid analysis to determine the ester and calcium concentrations, respectively. The main conclusions drawn were that the best conversion percentage (100% of biodiesel) was reached when the methanol:oil molar ratio was 6:1, the reaction time was 75 min and the catalyst mass was 3% in relation to the oil mass used in this process. The CaO concentration determined exceeded the limit of concentration defined by legislation and thus a secondary operation was carried out to purify the reaction products obtained. The results of this study showed a high performance, and the proposed experiment could be used as a new and innovative way to produce biodiesel in the future.