Transesterification of castor oil to biodiesel using NaY zeolite-supported La2O3 catalysts

As the requirements for green and industrial production of biodiesel increase, recyclable mesoporous spherical catalysts need to be developed. To achieve this, La2O3/NaY spherical particle (3-5 mm) heterogeneous catalysts were prepared by a granulating machine for the production of castor oil biodiesel. The effects of calcination temperature on catalytic activity and crushing strength were investigated. The structure, composition and morphology of the La2O3/NaY were characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD and BET analyses. The effects of calcination temperature, catalyst concentration, ethanol/oil molar ratio, reaction temperature and time on the yield of fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) were optimized by single-factor analysis. The addition of surfactant has a positive effect on the La2O3 dispersion and pore size of zeolite NaY. The synthesized catalyst shows excellent reusability and crushing strength which are essential for industrial practices. Under the optimization conditions of catalyst concentration 10 wt%, molar ratio of ethanol to oil 15:1, reaction temperature 70 degrees C for 50 min, the FAEE yield of 84.6% was obtained.