Transesterification of Canola Oil Using Marble Dust as a Heterogeneous Catalyst

Abstract

The transesterification of canola oil with methanol was studied in a heterogeneous system, using marble dust catalyst. Effects of the reaction temperature, catalyst amount, methanol/canola oil molar ratio, and reaction time in biodiesel production were investigated. The results show that the methanol/canola oil molar ratio of 6:1, and the catalyst amount of 3 wt% give the highest FAME yield of 89.32% at a reflux temperature of methanol in 3 h. In order to investigate catalyst stability, the marble dust catalyst was recycled three times. The recovered catalysts provided an 86.71 and 48.95% FAME yield for second and third cycles, respectively.

Keywords:

• biodiesel
• canola oil
• heterogeneous catalyst
• marble dust
• transesterification