초임계 메탄올과 산화아연을 이용한 대두유 바이오디젤 합성

Abstract

In this study, the transesterification of soybean oil with a zinc oxide (ZnO) catalyst in supercritical methanol was performed to produce biodiesel. Kinetic parameters were determined at the initial stage of the reaction to examine the reaction rate of this process. The activation energy was 92.25 kJ/mol, lower than that of catalyst-free supercritical transesterification. Combining ZnO with the supercritical process mitigated the severe reaction conditions necessary to transesterify soybean oil in supercritical methanol. The activity of the recycled catalyst was measured to determine its reuse performance. The ZnO catalyst exhibited high stability in supercritical methanol, indicating that it can be recycled without any major loss in activity. The effect of free fatty acid (FFA) content was also investigated to validate the feasibility of applying waste oils to the biodiesel feedstock. The presence of FFA did not have a significant effect on the biodiesel yield.