(576b) Transesterification of Canola Oil Into Biodiesel Catalyzed by Nanopowder Calcium Oxide

Nanopowder calcium oxide was used as the solid base catalyst for the transesterification of canola oil with methanol into biodiesel. The effect of various factors, such as the reaction temperature, catalyst loading and methanol/oil molar ratio, on the reaction performance has been investigated. The results showed that nanopowder CaO possessed a relatively high BET surface area and high catalytic activity for transesterification reaction at elevating temperatures. At 65˚C, 99.85% biodiesel yield was obtained at 2h when 3% (wt% of oil) nanopowder CaO was used with 9:1 methanol/oil molar ratio. Under the same reaction condition, only 88.59% and 16.23% yield were obtained in the presence of calcium methoxide (Ca(OCH3)2) and laboratory-grade CaO. The stability and the catalyst lifetime were examined by the recycling experiments. The result showed that nanopowder CaO could be used without significant deactivation for 10 cycles.