Original Article | 2010, Vol.32, No.6, pp. 627-634
Calcium oxide based catalysts for ethanolysis of soybean oil
Kornkanok Watcharathamrongkul, Bunjerd Jongsomjit and Muenduen Phisalaphong
pp. 627 - 634
Abstract
Transesterification of soybean oil and ethanol catalyzed by calcium oxides prepared from the calcinations of CaO, Ca(OH)2 , limestone, and Ca(OH)2 /CaO as solid base catalysts was investigated. It was found that the catalytic activities significantly depended upon their base site strengths and their structures. Increases in catalytic performance of CaO could be achieved by loading Ca(OH)2 on CaO and calcinations at a high temperature. The catalytic reaction using a 9:1 molar ratio of ethanol to oil at 70°C, using CaO loaded with 3.7 wt% Ca(OH)2 exhibited the optimal results, where the conversion of soybean oil reached 96.3% after 10 hrs of the reaction
