Biodiesel Production From Esterification and Transesterification Reactions Using Homogeneous as Well as Heterogeneous Catalysts

Due to the need of new renewable source of energy, special attentions are given to alternative liquid fuels to substituted petroleum derivate fuels. Biodiesel appears as one of the most promising source of energy for diesel engines because of its environmental advantages and also due to the evolution of the petroleum market.

Due to the fact that refine oils are quite expensive, cheaper raw materials have been studied to produce biodiesel. However, as the impurities (free fatty acid) amounts increases, new alternative process or technologies should be used over the conventional process.

In this work, the esterification reaction of free fatty acid as well as the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils was carried on using several catalysts, homogeneous: sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide as well as heterogeneous: enzymes, solid resins (basic as well as acid) and monolithic reactors.

The experimental results under similar operational conditions were compared in order to search for a suitable catalyst that will allow both reactions to take place simultaneously, improving the process and allowing it to treat less pure raw materials. High conversion was achieved with all the catalyst tested .