Cr/Al Oxide as Solid Acid Catalyst to Afford Babassu Biodisel

• Autor(a) principal: Moura,Carla V. R.
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Neres,Haroldo L. S., Lima,Mariane G., Moura,Edmilson M., Moita Neto,Jose M., Oliveira,José E. de, Lima,José R. O., Sttolin,Ilza M., Araújo,Eugênio C. E.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532016000300515
• topic: biodiesel; catalyst; babassu oil; kinetic; reusability; leaching; heterogeneity

In this work, it was described the preparation and the characterization of a solid acid catalyst obtained by the mixture of Cr/Al oxides (CRAL). The catalyst was tested in the transesterification reaction of babassu oil with 5% of free fatty acid (FFA). The results of textural and acidity characteristics of CRAL were: area (56 m2 g-1), pore size (7.0 µm), total acidity (182.28 µmol g-1), wherein Brönsted sites are the most active. Powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) show three phases of the catalyst (Cr2O3/Na2Cr2O3/Al2O3), 0.25:0.25:0.50, respectively. The reaction reached conversion about 98.6% under the conditions: alcohol/oil molar ratio (24:1), catalyst to oil mass ratio of 3.0%, 15 h and 70 ºC. The turnover frequency (TOF) found was 24.5 × 10-4 s-1. Kinetic of the reaction was researched over a temperature range of 60-80 ºC. A pseudo first-order model was proposed with the activation energy (Ea) of 49.18 kJ mol-1. CRAL is active in the biodiesel production for just one cycle, because in the second one it loses its activity. The leaching of catalyst is about 13%, demonstrating that the catalyst is not totally heterogeneous.