A one-pot route to tunable sugar-derived sulfonated carbon catalysts for sustainable production of biodiesel by fatty acid esterification

Samuel Lalthazuala Rokhum, Bishwajit Changmai, Thomas Kress and Andrew E.H. Wheatley

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 184, issue C, 908-919

Abstract: Carbon-based solid acid catalysts possessing up to 1.29 mmol g−1 –SO3H active centers were synthesized from glucose via an efficient one-pot hydrothermal carbonization-sulfonation without the need for high temperatures. Catalysts combined aromatic structure with hydrophilic –OH and –COOH groups and a high density of –SO3H centers (up to a total acid density of 5.31 mmol g−1). The level of –SO3H (0.81–1.29 mmol g−1) proved synthetically tunable. The relevance of the catalyst to the production of more sustainable fuels was tested using oleic acid (a free fatty acid whose esterification can be employed as a model for biodiesel production). Optimizing catalyst and conditions (20:1 MeOH:oleic acid molar ratio, 5 wt % catalyst loading wrt oleic acid, 80 °C, 120 min) enabled oleic acid esterification to the corresponding methyl oleate (a biodiesel component) with 97.5 ± 0.4% conversion and a low 37.6 kJ mol−1 activation energy. Activity loss upon re-use of the catalyst was proved to be by de-sulfonation and could be completely reversed. Hence, re-sulfonation of spent catalyst by a one-step process again delivered a 97.4 ± 0.5% conversion of oleic acid.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Carbonization; Esterification; Hydrothermal synthesis; Sulfonation; Activation energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:184:y:2022:i:c:p:908-919

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.12.001

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