Novel utilization of waste marine sponge (Demospongiae) as a catalyst in ultrasound-assisted transesterification of waste cooking oil

作者：Hindryawati Noor; Maniam Gaanty Pragas^*

来源：Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 2015, 22: 454-462.

DOI：10.1016/j.ultsonch.2014.04.011

• Transesterification
• Heterogeneous catalyst
• Ultrasound
• Waste cooking oil
• Biodiesel

This study demonstrates the potential of Na-silica waste sponge as a source of low cost catalyst in the transesterification of waste cooking oil aided by ultrasound. In this work an environmentally friendly and efficient transesterification process using Na-loaded SiO2 from waste sponge skeletons as a solid catalyst is presented. The results showed that the methyl esters content of 98.4 +/- 0.4 wt.% was obtainable in less than an hour (h) of reaction time at 55 degrees C. Optimization of reaction parameters revealed that MeOH:oil, 9:1; catalyst, 3 wt.% and reaction duration of 30 min as optimum reaction conditions. The catalyst is able to tolerant free fatty acid and moisture content up to 6% and 8%, respectively. In addition, the catalyst can be reused for seven cycles while maintaining the methyl esters content at 86.3%. Ultrasound undoubtedly assisted in achieving this remarkable result in less than 1 h reaction time. For the kinetics study at 50-60 degrees C, a pseudo first order model was proposed, and the activation energy of the reaction is determined as 33.45 kJ/mol using Arrhenius equation.

• 出版日期2015-1