Influence of supports structure on the synthesis of biodiesel from canola oil

Transesterification of canola oil with methanol was investigated under a heterogeneous catalysts system. Various γ-Al
₂
O
₃
-, hydrotalcite-, SiO
₂
-supported Na, Ca oxides prepared via an impregnation method were applied as solid catalyst. The influence of supports (γ-Al
₂
O
₃
, hydrotalcite, SiO
₂
) structure on the activity and adsorption behavior of Na, Ca-based catalysts for transesterification was comparatively studied by FE-SEM in this study. Experiment result shows the biodiesel conversion rate is up to 93% in 1hr reaction time at 65°C when using 20NaOH/hydrotalcite as the solid catalyst.