Study of catalyst support utilization on ZnO-based solid catalyst to its activity at transesterification of Kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) oil

Abstract

ZnO-based solid catalyst was successfully synthesized with two types of catalyst support that is gamma alumina and multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Those catalyst would be used to produce biodiesel from Kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) oil via transesterification reaction. The aims of this study are to compare the performance of catalyst support that are gamma alumina and multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for transesterification of Kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) oil. The two kinds of catalyst are gamma alumina supported zinc oxide – copper oxide (ZnO-CuO/γ-Al2O3) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes supported zinc oxide (ZnO/MWCNTs). All of the catalysts were prepared by a combination of precipitation, impregnation, and gel process that familiarly called by Stober process. All of the catalysts, then were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption-desorption followed by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) calculation and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The yield of biodiesel product has significantly different value which is ZnO-CuO/γ-Al2O3 catalyst can accelerate the reaction more effective than ZnO/MWCNTs catalyst. The yield of biodiesel reached above 80% while using ZnO-CuO/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. Contrarily, ZnO/MWCNTs catalyst only give biodiesel yield below 15% after 3 hours reaction.