Biodiesel production from soybean oil using modified calcium loaded on rice husk activated carbon as a low-cost basic catalyst

Activated carbon was obtained by hydrothermal process using rice husk as raw materials. The study in our lab had been developed to produce high-quality biodiesel from soybean oil with the activated carbon-base catalyst. The polyethylene glycol (PEG 400) modified calcium loaded on the rice husk activated carbon (CaO/AC) catalyst was prepared via the dipping method and then was used as a heterogeneous solid-base catalyst to produce biodiesel. The effects of CaO/AC ratio and calcination time on catalytic performance were researched according to the yield of biodiesel, and the optimum reaction conditions for biodiesel from soybean oil via PEG 400-modified CaO/AC catalyst were evaluated. The results showed that the yield of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) achieved 93.01% at the reaction temperature of 342 K, methanol/oil molar ratio of 10: 1, and reaction time of 6 h. All in all, modified CaO/AC catalyst showed very high activity for transesterification of soybean oil and had catalytic repeated availability.