Sodium Aluminate as Heterogeneous Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

Sodium aluminate has been found to catalyse complete transesterification of used cotton seed oil. At optimum reflux conditions of methanol, for 0.5 wt % of the catalyst with 1: 22 molar ratio of oil and methanol, time required for completion of reaction was 1h 45 min. With higher oil: methanol molar ratio of 1:54, the catalyst showed tolerance of moisture upto 8 wt %. Sodium aluminate with calcination in the range of 250-850°C was also evaluated for transesterification of used cotton seed oil with methanol. Both sodium aluminate and calcinied sodium aluminate (250-850°C) were characterized by Powder XRD, Hammett indicators and TEM.