Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF3-O054
BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM WASTE FRYING OIL USING
MAGNETIC NICKEL AS ESTERIFICATION CATALYST
Grisel Corro 1 , Victor Manuel Romero Lara 1 , Fortino Bañuelos Bañuelos 1 , Georgina Sandoval 2
1 Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Instituto de Ciencias, Mexico. 2 Centro de
Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, Biodiesel, Mexico.
Biodiesel production has increased recently due to increased energy needs
accordingly to population growth [1]. Biodiesel represents a great alternative to
help meet energy needs, however, production costs using edible oils is high
compared to diesel marketed commercially [2].
The cost of biodiesel production is mainly influenced by raw materials, so this
research reports a process in which Waste Frying Oil is used as raw material and
the use of Nickel catalyst for the esterification of Free Fatty Acids.
Biodiesel is produced in two stages, in the first step the esterification of free fatty
acids with methanol and catalyzed with Ni 0 , Ni/SiO2 or NiO. In the second step,
triglycerides are transesterified with methanol and NaOH catalyst. Nickel
catalysts were characterized by UV-Vis DRS spectra, by their specific acid and
basic density, and by XRD spectroscopy.
The catalysts activity for FFA esterification was determined as a function of
oil/methanol ratio, varying the reaction time, setting the reaction temperature
to the methanol ebullition temperature.
The results reveal that the activity is closely linked to the magnetic properties of
nickel compounds and in second degree, to the acid or basic sites on the catalyst
surface. The use of metallic nickel as esterification catalyst allows to perform a
clean reaction in which the catalyst is easy recovered due to its magnetic
properties.
The use of solid Nickel catalysts prevents the water waste streams, excess of
methanol, high pressure and high cost stainless steel equipment used to
eliminate the homogeneous acid catalyst that would have been used for the FFA
esterification. The chromatographic analysis of the biodiesel obtained, revealed
that the process proposed in this investigation led to a high-quality biodiesel,
meeting the international requirements for its utilization as a fuel.