Tang, Zo Ee (2019) Synthesis of Corncob Based Carbon Acid Catalyst by Arylation of 4 Benzenediazonium Sulfonate for Biodiesel Production. Master dissertation/thesis, UTAR.
Abstract
The utilisation of low cost feedstock such as palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) in biodiesel product has significantly reduced the biodiesel raw material cost. Carbon acid catalyst that is low cost, non-toxic, biodegradable and highly reusable is able to convert the high free fatty acid (FFA) content in the low cost feedstock into biodiesel (FAME). In this study, corncob derived carbon acid catalyst was synthesised through arylation of 4-benzenediazonium sulfonate (4-BDS) sulfonation method and the synthesised catalyst was used in the esterification reaction of PFAD and methanol. SEM micrographs showed that the activated carbon (AC) had porous structure and the AC obtained had exhibited large BET surface area of 972.66 m2/g. Besides that, EDX and FT-IR had confirmed the successful attachment of –SO3H groups onto the activated carbon. TGA result showed that the catalyst was thermally stable up to the temperature of 230 ˚C. The optimum catalyst synthesis condition obtained was at 900 ˚C carbonisation temperature, 1.5 hours sulfonation time and 11: 1 sulfanilic acid to AC weight ratio. The optimum catalyst, Cat_900h possessed the total acid density of 2.48 mmol/g and had achieved FAME yield of 72.09% and conversion of 93.49% in the esterification reaction. In addition, the optimum esterification reaction obtained from RSM was at reaction temperature 89.24 ˚C, reaction time of 6.48 hours, 11 wt.% catalyst loading and 21.94:1 methanol to oil molar ratio with maximum FAME yield of 83.48%. Kinetic studies had proven that the esterification reaction of PFAD and methanol in the presence of corncob based carbon acid catalyst followed the pseudo-homogeneous first order reaction model with activation energy of 23.36 kJ/mol.
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