Production of biodiesel through esterification of palmitic acid using 12-tungestoposphoric acid supported on nanocavity of aluminium incorporated mesoporous SBA-15

The main aim of this research is to develop efficient and environmentally benign heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production. For this purpose, H3PW12O40 (PW12) supported on Al-functionalized SBA-15 mesoporous molecular sieve featuring a well-defined three-dimensional (3D) mesoporosity were studied, and the prepared catalyst (PW12/Al-SBA-15) was tested for the esterification process of palmitic acid to produce methyl palmitate as a kind of biodiesel. The effects of the methanol/oil ratio, catalyst amounts, reaction time, and reaction temperature on the conversion are also reported in this paper. More importantly, by using a 35 wt % of PW12/Al-SBA-15 with methanol/oil molar ratio of 20: 1 at reflux of methanol, the oil conversion of 98% after 8 h of reaction, could be achieved over the solid catalyst for at least 6 cycles under mild conditions.