Functionalized Sepiolite Nanocatalyst under Radiative Heating for Cyclic Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel production is energy-consuming and requires an appropriate catalyst to boost the reaction. in the present study, waste edible oil was used as the feedstock, an infrared lamp was utilized as the heat source, and a solid acid catalyst based on sepiolite (sep) clay was applied. the sepiolite catalyst was modified with chlorosulfonic acid and exhibited a nanoscale particle size distribution. the effects of infrared irradiation on the reaction time and quality of the oil-methanol- catalyst system were investigated and compared with conventional electric heating. material properties were characterized by xrd (x-ray diffraction) and fe-sem (field-emission scanning electron microscopy), and the biodiesel yield and quality were evaluated by gc-ms (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) analysis. the experimental results demonstrated that the sepiolite nanocatalyst achieved a high biodiesel yield of 96.5% under infrared irradiation, about 4% higher than that of the conventional heating under the same conditions. meanwhile, radiation heating reduced energy consumption per liter by 68% compared to electric heating. the biodiesel production cost on a laboratory scale was estimated at 1.26 to 1.65 $/lit for the infrared irradiation and 1.68 to 2.62 $/lit for the electric heating method. the separation and recovery of the catalyst from the transesterification reaction products were also studied and found to be easier, faster, and simpler than those of homogeneous catalysts. the catalyst was successfully reused for three successive cycles, with less than a 2% reduction in the yield per cycle, and still showed a biodiesel yield of above 90%.