Sulfate and Hydroxide Supported on Zirconium Oxide Catalysts for Biodiesel Production

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dc.contributor.authorAbdoulmoumine, Nourredineen
dc.contributor.committeechairAgblevor, Foster Aryien
dc.contributor.committeecochairAchenie, Luke E. K.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWen, Zhiyouen
dc.contributor.departmentBiological Systems Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:41:00Zen
dc.date.adate2010-07-23en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:41:00Zen
dc.date.issued2010-06-18en
dc.date.rdate2010-07-23en
dc.date.sdate2010-07-02en
dc.description.abstractBiodiesel is currently produced by homogeneous catalysis. More recently however, heterogeneous catalysis is being considered as a cheaper alternative to the homogeneous process. In this research project, heterogeneous catalysts of zirconium oxide were produced by impregnation. Zirconium oxide impregnation with sulfuric acid produced acidic solid catalysts. It was determined that impregnation and calcination at 550<sup>o</sup>C (SO₄/ZrO₂-550<sup>o</sup>C) produced the best catalyst for palmitic acid esterification with 10 wt % as the optimum concentration in esterification of palmitic acid. SO₄/ZrO₂-550<sup>o</sup>C was successfully recycled for eight consecutive runs before permanent deactivation. Its sulfur content was 1.04 wt % using SEM-EDS and 2.05 wt % using XPS for characterization. BET surface area was 90.89 m2/g. The reaction mechanism over Brønsted acid (SO₄/ZrO₂-550<sup>o</sup>C) and Lewis acid (Al₂O₃) catalysts obeyed Eley-Rideal kinetics with palmitic acid and methanol adsorbed on the active site respectively. Zirconium oxide was also impregnated with sodium hydroxide to produce basic catalysts. The best catalyst was produced when zirconium oxide was impregnated with 1.5 M NaOH and calcined at 600<sup>o</sup>C. Soybean oil was completely converted to biodiesel with 10 wt % catalyst and 1:6 oil to methanol. A mixture of the base catalyst with 30 wt % SO₄/ZrO₂-550<sup>o</sup>C effectively converted soybean oil containing 5% oleic acid indicating that this mixture could be used for waste oils. The reaction was first order with respect to triglyceride and second order with respect to methanol. The activation energy was 49.35 kJ/mol and the reaction mechanism obeyed Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-07022010-171816en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-07022010-171816/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/33873en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartAbdoulmoumine_N_2010.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectBiodieselen
dc.subjectheterogeneous catalysisen
dc.subjecttransesterificationen
dc.subjectesterificationen
dc.subjectzirconium oxideen
dc.subjectsulfated zirconiumen
dc.subjecthydroxide zirconiumen
dc.titleSulfate and Hydroxide Supported on Zirconium Oxide Catalysts for Biodiesel Productionen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineBiological Systems Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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