Synthesis of Bio-additive for Low Sulphur Diesel: Transesterification of Soybean Oil and Ethylene Glycol using K2CO3 Catalyst

Abstract

The desulphurization process of diesel fuel is carried out to reduce the amount of SO2 emissions that can cause acid rain. However, the desulphurization process in diesel fuel not only removes the sulfur compounds but polyaromatic and polar compounds are also eliminated during this process. The loss of these two compounds can reduce the lubricity properties of diesel fuel. Therefore, it is necessary to add an additive compound that can increase the lubricity properties. In this research, 2-hydroxyethyl ester (HEE) was synthesized as an additive to increase the lubricity of diesel fuel. This compound was synthesized through the transesterification reaction of soybean oil and ethylene glycol with K2CO3 as the base catalyst. The composition of the synthesized additives was analyzed using the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Based on the results of GC-MS spectrum analysis, it is known that the 2-hydroxyethyl ester compound has been formed with a yield of 66.5% (relative to the area of the chromatogram peak). The HEE compound obtained is a mixture of 2 hydroxyethyl palmitate, 2 hydroxyethyl linoleate, 2 hydroxyethyl stearate, 2 hydroxyethyl arachidonate, 2 hydroxyethyl nervate, and 2 hydroxyethyl behenate.

Biodiesel Production from a Naturally Grown Green Algae Spirogyra Using Heterogeneous Catalyst: An Approach to RSM Optimization Technique

“…(Kolakoti & Appa Rao, 2020). Hence, the transesterification process is recognised as one of the best processes for reducing kinematic viscosity (Hariyanto et al, 2021); this process also gains high efficiency while converting it into biodiesel. The molar ratio (MR), time, temperature, and catalyst concentration (CC) are four significant process parameters used during transesterification.…”

A Green Heterogeneous Catalyst Production and Characterization for Biodiesel Production using RSM and ANN Approach

“…However, biodiesel has high viscosity (> 40 cSt) which is not recommended in diesel engines due to poor atomization (Kolakoti & Rao, 2020a;Supriyadi et al, 2022). Therefore, the transesterification process was implemented to reduce the viscosity (Hariyanto et al, 2021;Zetra et al, 2021) in addition to thermal cracking, micro-emulsification and blending techniques. The transesterification process has gained huge attention due to its high efficiency in biodiesel conversion (Sinha et al, 2008).…”