In order to investigate the influences of Lewis metals on acidic properties and catalytic activities, a series of Keggin heteropolyacid (HPA) catalysts, HnPW11MO39 (M = Ti(IV), Cu(II), Al(III), Sn(IV), Fe(III), Cr(III), Zr(IV) and Zn(II); for Ti and Zr, the number of oxygen is 40), were prepared and applied in the esterification and transesterification reactions. Only those cations with moderat...

Two approaches for metal ion incorporation were employed to introduce Ca2+ into SBA-15; Direct Synthesis (DS) and Wet Impregnation (WI). The non-ionic template was removed by two different methods; calcination and solvent extraction. The obtained catalysts were characterized by means of X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), and FT-IR spectroscopy. The bas...

Reduction of fossil fuels sources, increasing of pollution gases emission, and global warming effects increase the demand of renewable fuels. One of the main candidates of alternative fuels is biodiesel. Biodiesel limits greenhouse gas effects due to the closed CO2 cycle. Biodiesel has more biodegradability, lower combustion emissions such as CO, SOx, HC, PM and lower toxicity than petro diesel...

Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (BAILs) can play a dual role, as a solvent and as a catalyst, in many reactions. However, molecular details of the catalytic mechanism are poorly understood. We present here a density functional theory (DFT) study for the catalytic mechanism of the transesterification of methyl ester (ME) with trimethylolpropane (TMP), in the presence of three representative BAILs,...

There has been great emphasis on the use of biodiesel due to worldwide scarcity of fossil fuels, increasing crude oil prices and environmental concerns to reduce pollution. Production of biodiesel from biologically derived oils involves transesterification of these triglycerides with short chain alcohols to yield alkyl esters of fatty acids. These can be used in engines which are having compres...

Transesterification of palm olein with glycerol can increase the functionality by introducing additional hydroxyl groups to the triglyceride structure, an advantage compared to using palm olein directly as feedstock for producing palm-based polyol. The objective of this study was to synthesize transesterified palm olein-based polyol via a three-step reaction: (1) transesterification of palm ole...

Using algae as a feedstock for biodiesel has been considered for a number of years, but it has always had limitations, due mainly to the production methods used to grow and harvest the algae. In this project, we propose a novel attached growth method to produce the algae while recycling dairy farm wastewater using the microalga Chlorella sp. The first part of the work provided a feasibility stu...

Biodiesel (BD) is an alternative diesel fuel derived from both vegetable oils and animal fats. Currently, most BD is made by alkali-catalyzed transesterification of a refined oil or fat, the cost of which is the major expenditure in producing BD. Yellow and brown greases are readily available renewable fats that are less expensive and hence represent attractive feedstocks for the production of ...

Background: Biodiesel production has increased dramatically over the last decade, raising the need for new rapid and non-destructive analytical tools and technologies. H Low Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LF-NMR) applications, which offer great potential to the field of biodiesel, have been developed by the Phyto Lipid Biotechnology Lab research team in the last few years. Results: Supervise...

BACKGROUND Biodiesel production has increased dramatically over the last decade, raising the need for new rapid and non-destructive analytical tools and technologies. 1H Low Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LF-NMR) applications, which offer great potential to the field of biodiesel, have been developed by the Phyto Lipid Biotechnology Lab research team in the last few years. RESULTS Supervis...