الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The development of effective heterogeneous catalysts for the production of biodiesel from low-cost feedstocks containing high amounts of free fatty acids (FFAs) has lately become one of the principal focuses in the energy research field. In this thesis, hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite containing sulfonic acid groups (SO3H-HM-ZSM-5-3) was prepared and applied in the production of biodiesel fuel from used vegetable oil. This catalyst combined the benefits of having pore size large enough to allow for the easy diffusion of the bulky reactant and product molecules in and out of their porous system, high surface area and pore volume as well as the required strong Brønsted acid sites for esterification and transesterification reactions. So, it was expected to have excellent catalytic performance towards the targeted application. |