An efficient, recoverable solid base catalyst of magnetic bamboo charcoal: Preparation, characterization, and performance in biodiesel production

Kang Liu, Rui Wang and Meiqing Yu

Renewable Energy, 2018, vol. 127, issue C, 531-538

Abstract: A novel bifunctional bamboo charcoal-based magnetic solid base catalyst (K/BC-Fe2O3) was successfully prepared by an in-situ synthesis-impregnation-calcination method. Scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller results show that the synthesized bamboo charcoal-based magnetic catalyst possesses a mesoporous structure and high specific surface area. X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate that after calcination of the precursor at 500 °C, the magnetic particles were finely fixed to the carbon skeleton of the bamboo charcoal, and the iron oxide was present as γ-Fe2O3. The vibrating sample magnetometer results demonstrate that the superparamagnetic catalyst could be easily separated and recovered after reaction with the aid of an external magnetic field. The possible formation mechanism of the alkaline site (K2O species) on the catalyst surface can be summarized as a transverse activation at low temperature and a radial activation at high temperature. It was determined that the following are the optimum conditions for biodiesel production: an amount of added catalyst 2.5 wt%, a molar ratio of methanol/oil of 8:1, a reaction time of 1 h, and a reaction temperature 60 °C with a maximum yield of 98.0%. Regeneration experiments reveal that the magnetic catalyst can maintain high catalytic activity even after being reused four times. This study presents a novel bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst with potential applications in biodiesel production.

Keywords: Biomass; Bamboo charcoal; Magnetic catalyst; Solid base catalyst; Biodiesel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148118305172
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:127:y:2018:i:c:p:531-538

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.04.092

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().