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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: Transesterification reaction of the crude oil of rapeseed with supercritical/subcritical methanol in the presence of a relatively low amount of NaOH was successfully carried out, where soap formation didn''t occur. The main factors affecting the methyl ester yield during the transesterification reaction were the catalyst content, the reaction temperature, the molar ratio of alcohol to oil and the water content. High methyl ester yield and fast reaction rate could be obtained even if the reaction pressure was relatively low. In addition, kinetics of the transesterification reaction was also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]