Soybean biodiesel production using synergistic CaO/Ag nano catalyst: Process optimization, kinetic study, and economic evaluation

A heterogeneous CaO/Ag nano catalyst was developed and applied for biodiesel production from transesterification of soybean oil. The silver performed synergistic effects with CaO on promoting biodiesel production. The CaO/Ag nano catalysts exhibited abundant strong basic sites with larger BET surface area (7.02 vs 2.05 m2/g), pore diameter (58.84 vs 37.08 nm) and pore volume (0.070 vs 0.016 cm3/g), which significantly reduced mass transfer resistance of triglycerides during transesterification and improved the mass transfer constants. Response surface methodology was applied to investigate the influence reaction parameters and optimize biodiesel yield. A maximized biodiesel yield of 90.95 ± 2.56 % was achieved using methanol:oil molar ratio of 13, CaO/Ag loading of 5%, reaction time of 90 min and reaction temperature of 72℃. The optimized biodiesel yield for CaO catalyzed transesterification was 88.40 ± 3.34 %, using similar reaction conditions but with 180 min of reaction time. Both nano catalysts were consecutively reused for five times. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of CaO and CaO/Ag catalyzed transesterification were performed and compared. Economic evaluation of biodiesel production using CaO and CaO/Ag was performed and compared to provide insights for heterogeneous catalyst application for biodiesel production on industrial scale.