The activity of a catalyst in transestrification reaction usually declines with repeated uses and this limits the possibility to use it many times. This paper presents a review of various techniques used to evaluate the activity changes, the recycling processes for calcium and magnesium oxides based heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production. The activity of calcium and magnesium oxides based catalysts declines due to leaching, surface or active sites poisoning by reactant or product molecules and modification of physical aspects. Physico-chemical methods (AAS, BET, CO 2 -TPD, EDS, FTIR, ICP-AES, SEM, TG/DTA and XRD) were used to check the catalyst modification and to confirm the deactivation. When separated from the reaction mixture by filtration, the catalyst could be reused without any treatment or recycled by washing, drying or/and recalcination. Between various recycling processes for calcium and magnesium oxides based catalysts, mixed oxides showed less leaching and performed FAME or FAEE yield >90% with reusability.

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The purpose of this work is to analyze the efficiency of natural adsorbents (rice husk ash (RHA) versus corn husk ash (CHA)) for the dry purification of ethyl biodiesels obtained by transesterification via homogeneous catalysis of nonedible oils (Balagnites aegyptiaca, Azadirachta indica, and Jatropha curcas). The characterization of RHA and CHA was achieved by N 2 adsorption/Brunauer−Emmett−Teller analysis and by scanning electron spectroscopy with microanalysis by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The quality of the three biodiesels, before and after dry treatment on adsorbent, was evaluated by various analytical methods ( 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance, gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector, Karl Fischer titration, and inductively coupled plasma−atomic emission spectroscopy). Several operating conditions (presence of activated carbon in the ashes, temperature, contact time, and number of treatment cycles) were tested in order to define the best procedure. RHA combined with the selected procedure showed very satisfactory results for removal of impurities from the produced biodiesels (residual glycerides, free glycerin, water, catalyst, and metals introduced during the oil extraction) and thus may be an alternative to the conventional wet purification process (acidic water washing).

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