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A novel green one-pot synthesis of biodiesel from Ricinus communis seeds by basic heterogeneous catalysis

Abstract:

The production of biofuels from renewable biomass resources is an attractive way to mitigate CO2 emissions and alleviate the shortage of fossil fuels. A novel green one-pot synthesis of biodiesel from Ricinus communis seeds by basic heterogeneous catalysis is reported in this work. The direct transesterification (one-step process) of the seeds with methanol in the presence of homogeneous (HCl and NaOH) or heterogeneous (Na2ZrO3) catalysts was evaluated. Additionally, the comparison of the conventional (two-step process) transesterification against the direct transesterification reaction was analysed. The conventional transesterification of Ricinus communis oil with acidic (HCl/CH3OH, 5% v/v) and basic (NaOH/CH3OH, 5% w/w) homogeneous catalysts showed conversions of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) > 97% at 6 h and 3 h, respectively. Moreover, direct transesterification was carried out using a …