Novel zeolite Na-X synthesized from fly ash as a heterogeneous catalyst in biodiesel production
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Date
2012Author
Babajide, Omotola
Petrik, Leslie
Musyoka, Nicholas
Ameer, Farouk
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Several studies have been carried out on the production of biodiesel using different heterogeneous catalysts
but this study has been able to demonstrate the prospect of utilizing South African class F fly ash
as a raw material for zeolite synthesis subsequently applied as a solid base catalyst in the production of
biodiesel. A novel faujasite zeolite material synthesized from South African class F fly ash and denoted
as FA/Na-X was ion exchanged with potassium to obtain the South African class F fly ash based zeolite
FA/K-X. This heterogeneous catalyst was used in the conversion of sunflower oil with methanol to yield
fatty acid methyl esters. Different characterization techniques were employed to give more information
about this zeolite material. The FA/Na-X and the ion exchanged FA/K-X were applied as catalysts
in biodiesel synthesis via transesterification reactions. A high quality biodiesel with a yield of 83.53%
was obtained at reaction conditions of methanol:oil ratio of 6:1, catalyst amount of 3% (w/w) of oil and
reaction temperature of 65 ◦C after 8 h.