Stefanus Kevin Suryajaya, Yohanes Ricky Mulyono, Shella Permatasari Santoso, Maria Yuliana, Alfin Kurniawan, Aning Ayucitra, Yueting Sun, Sandy Budi Hartono, Felycia Edi Soetaredjo, Suryadi Ismadji
To promote the use of low-quality oils in producing biodiesel, a bifunctional acid-base catalyst Fe/DS-HMS-NH2 is fabricated using the two-step condensation technique. The obtained Fe/DS-HMS-NH2 is of a doubled shell structure in spherical shape with a uniform size of 156 nm. Its hollow core (with a diameter of 86 nm) and two spatial shells with different active sites enables the esterification and transesterification reactions to be accomplished in a one-pot synthesis. The influences of four independent reaction variables on the yield of fatty acid methyl esters YF was studied, including catalyst loading mc, reaction time t, reaction temperature T, and the methanol to degummed palm oil mass ratio rm/o. The highest yield was obtained at 85.36% (w/w) when mc = 6% (w/w), t = 4.5 h, T = 60 °C, and rm/o = 6:1. The Fe/DS-HMS-NH2 shows a good recyclability with YF > 80% (w/w) up to three reaction cycles. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
Department of Chemical Engineering, Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya, Kalijudan 37, Surabaya, 60114, Indonesia; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43, Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, 10607, Taiwan; Department of Chemistry, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, 80424, Taiwan; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom