catalytic performance evaluation of a novel heterogeneous magnetic mesoporous catalyst (fe3o4 /sba-16) on ethanol – oleic acid esterification: optimization by rsm method

Biodiesel is a liquid fuel suitable to replace diesel originated from petroleum. it can be obtained from several renewable sources, such as vegetable oils. in this study, a novel heterogeneous magnetic mesoporous (fe3o4 /sba16), was successfully applied as a catalyst in the biodiesel production through the esterification reaction of oleic acid with ethanol. catalyst were performed using saxs), ft-ir, bet, tga, sem and edx mapping analysis. a response surface methodology (rsm) known as box-behnken design (bbd) was applied to optimize the main experimental reaction conditions, using a set of 27 experiments. factors and levels for the experimental design was shown in the bellow table. the optimal condition for the conversion of oleic acid was determined in range of 4-8 h for time, 80-110 °c for temperature, 5:1, 10:1, 15:1m for ratio of methanol to oleic acid and a 5-15 wt% catalyst loading, and conversion% as response, while for the faee content, determined by gas chromatography. results show this new magnetic catalyst is a good alternative for replacing traditional catalysts for biodiesel production through esterification reaction.