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Abstract: In this study, transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel using CaO as a solid base catalyst was studied. The reaction mechanism was proposed and the separate effects of the molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction temperature, mass ratio of catalyst to oil and water content were investigated. The experimental results showed that a 12:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil, addition of 8% CaO catalyst, 65°C reaction temperature and 2.03% water content in methanol gave the best results, and the biodiesel yield exceeded 95% at 3h. The catalyst lifetime was longer than that of calcined K2CO3/γ-Al2O3 and KF/γ-Al2O3 catalysts. CaO maintained sustained activity even after being repeatedly used for 20 cycles and the biodiesel yield at 1.5h was not affected much in the repeated experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel using SrO as a solid base catalyst was studied. The reaction mechanism was proposed and the separate effects of reaction temperature, molar ratio of methanol to oil, mass ratio of catalyst to oil and repeated experiments were investigated. The results showed that the yield of biodiesel produced with SrO as a catalyst was in excess of 95% at temperatures below 70°C within 30min. SrO had a long catalyst lifetime and could maintain sustained activity even after being repeatedly used for 10 cycles. The results proved that transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel using SrO as a catalyst is a commercially viable way to decrease the costs of biodiesel production. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, physical and chemical characterizations of calcium methoxide were investigated to assess its performance as an excellent solid base catalyst using some instrumental methods, such as BET surface area measurement, scanning electron micrographs and particle size distribution. Then, it was used to catalyze transesterification of soybean oil to biodiesel with methanol. The effects of various factors such as mass ratio of catalyst to oil, reaction temperature and volume ratio of methanol to oil were studied to optimize the reaction conditions. The results showed that calcium methoxide has strong basicity and high catalytic activity as a heterogeneous solid base catalyst and it was obtained a 98% biodiesel yield within 2h in this reaction. Besides, the recycling experiment results showed it had a long catalyst lifetime and could maintain activity even after being reused for 20 cycles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]