Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. fatty acids using solid acid SO42-/ZrO2-CeO2 as catalyst

Solid acid SO42-/ZrO2-CeO2 was prepared by co-precipitation impregnation method, which was used as catalyst for biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. fatty acids with methanol. Effects of CeO2 loading and calcination temperature on performance of the catalyst were examined; besides, single factor experiments and kinetics were also studied. The results show that SO42-/ZrO2-CeO2has higher catalytic activity. The conversion of fatty acids reaches 0.9403 at 150°C in 60 min when the weight ratio of catalyst to fatty acids is 8% and the volume ratio of methanol to acids is 2:1. The kinetics calculation indicates that the apparent activation energy is 45.31 kJ/mol, and kinetic model is -dcA/dt=38 371e-45310/RTcA1.44.