Microwave-Assisted Heterogeneous Catalytic Transesterification of Soybean Oil

Biodiesel, as a renewable bioenergy, recently has been researched in regard to biodiesel products. In this study, soybean oil was converted to biodiesel with methanol using several heterogeneous catalysts, furthermore, the process by means of microwave irradiation was investigated. Microwaves efficiently reduce reaction times. The microwave enhancement nano CaO catalyzed of transesterification with soybean oil was considerably higher than the traditional heterogeneous process. The results indicate that the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) conversion rate significantly increased to 70.53% min at 40 min. Microwave irradiation was studied with the aim of efficiently reducing the reaction time, and increasing the yield.