TY - JOUR ID - 16272 TI - Sulphated zirconia, an efficient solid acid catalyst for transesterification of triglycerides JO - Advanced Materials Proceedings JA - AMP LA - en SN - 2002-4428 AU - Barot, Sunita AU - Gadhiya, Neelkumar AU - Nawab, Maaz AU - Bandyopadhyay, Rajib. AD - School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar 382007, India Y1 - 2017 PY - 2017 VL - 2 IS - 12 SP - 819 EP - 824 KW - Transesterification KW - triacetin KW - sulphated zirconia KW - jatropha oil KW - Biodiesel DO - 10.5185/amp.2017/835 N2 - Sulphated zirconia, one of the most efficient solid acid catalysts, has been explored in present studies for transesterification reaction. The catalyst was synthesized by conventional precipitation method and characterized by XRD, TGA, FTIR and total acidity. The catalyst exhibits excellent activity for transesterification of model triglyceride triacetin as well as Jatropha oil with high selectivity towards the formation of monoalkyl esters. Influence of various reaction parameters such as triglyceride/alcohol molar ratio, catalyst amount, reaction temperature and reaction time on catalytic performance were studied over model triglyceride. The maximum 96 % yield of methyl acetate was achieved in 3 hours at 10 wt% catalyst loading with triglyceride to methanol ratio 1:15 and 70o C reaction temperature. The kinetic studies were also done and found that reaction follows first order kinetics and reaction rates are not mass transfer limited. The optimized reaction parameters were extended for biodiesel synthesis from Jatropha oil and FAME yield of 82 % could be successfully achieved. Hence, Sulphated zirconia is a promising catalyst for heterogeneous transesterification of triglycerides, which is more productive and environment-friendly as compared to conventional homogeneous transesterification. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press. UR - https://amp.iaamonline.org/article_16272.html L1 - https://amp.iaamonline.org/article_16272_c70ff837e9aecfb57fe1d363fc8f0c9d.pdf ER -