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Transesterification of Rapeseed Oil to Biodiesel on CaO/α-Fe Hollow Fiber Catalyst: Optimization by Response Surface Methodology

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Abstract

CaO/α-Fe precursor gel fibers have been successfully prepared using metal salts and citric acid (CA) by the organic gel-thermal decomposition method. Subsequently, these precursor gel fibers were calcined to introduce hollow structures into the fiber. The physical and chemical properties were further characterized by BET surface area, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, temperature programmed desorption of CO2, and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. The magnetic property of α-Fe in CaO/α-Fe fiber provides the great advantage of reusing CaO catalytic activity for the transesterification of rapeseed oil to corresponding fatty acid methyl esters. The effects of various important parameters on the conversion ratio of biodiesel were optimized by utilizing response surface methodology analysis. The optimum conditions achieve 97 % biodiesel conversion ratio. In addition, the conversion ratio still remains 85 % after 20 times repetition. Therefore the loss of CaO/α-Fe fiber catalyst mass was minimal.

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Acknowledgment

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (301101388), the National Science Foundation for Postdoctoral Scientists of China (20100471383), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2011468), the Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds (1001035B), the Natural Science Foundation for Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (09KJD4800001), the Jiangsu Key Lab of Mechanical Clean Energy and Application Foundation (QK09006), the Jiangsu University Research Foundation for young scholars (08JDG039, 11JDG098), Zhenjiang Industrial support program (GY2011006), the Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies, and the Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food & Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Lin, Fengjie Cui & Haining Zhou

  2. School of Material Science & Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Lin, Xiangqian Shen & Mingdong Dong

  3. Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark

    Lin Lin & Mingdong Dong

  4. College of Textile and Clothing, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Xiaoqiang Li

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  1. Lin Lin
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  2. Xiaoqiang Li
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  3. Fengjie Cui
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  4. Haining Zhou
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  5. Xiangqian Shen
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Correspondence to Lin Lin or Mingdong Dong.

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Lin, L., Li, X., Cui, F. et al. Transesterification of Rapeseed Oil to Biodiesel on CaO/α-Fe Hollow Fiber Catalyst: Optimization by Response Surface Methodology. Bioenerg. Res. 5, 949–957 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-012-9209-z

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