Synthesis of Magnetic Catalyst Derived from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch for Esterification of Oleic Acid: An Optimization Study

Abstract

Biomass, renewable, abundantly available and a good source of energy. The conversion of biomass waste into valuable products has received wide attention. In this study, an empty fruit bunch (oil palm EFB) supported magnetic acid catalyst for esterification reaction was successfully prepared via the one-step impregnation process. The new magnetic catalyst achieved a higher surface area of 188.87 m2/g with a total acidity of 2.4 mmol/g and identified iron oxide as g-Fe2O3. The magnetization value of 24.97 emu/g demonstrated that the superparamagnetic catalyst could be easily recovered and separated after the reaction using an external magnet. The catalytic performance of oil palm EFB supported magnetic acid catalyst was examined by esterification of oleic acid. Esterification process parameters were optimized via Response Surface Methodology (RSM) optimization tool with Box-Behnken design (BBD). The following optimum parameters were determined: an amount of 9 wt% catalyst, molar ratio of methanol to oleic acid of 12:1, reaction time of 2 h and reaction temperature of 60 °C with a maximum conversion of 94.91% was achieved. The catalyst can be recycled up to five cycles with minimal loss in its activity. The oil palm waste-based magnetic acid catalyst indicates its potential replacement to the existing solid catalysts that are economical and environmentally friendly for the esterification process in biofuel applications. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Corncob-Derived Sulfonated Magnetic Solid Catalyst Synthesis as Heterogeneous Catalyst in The Esterification of Waste Cooking Oil and Bibliometric Analysis

“…1113 and 1030 cm -1 (Ibrahim et al, 2020). Furthermore, the successful Fe attachment by impregnation was indicated at 540 cm -1 (Krishnan et al, 2022). This result revealed that the acidity behaviour of CO-SO3H-Fe was related to the presence of -OH, -COOH and -SO3H, and the quantitative measurement is shown in Table 2.…”

“…FT-IR was used to identify the functional groups on the surface of CO and CO-SO3H-Fe particles (Figure 3a). The vibrational mode of O-H, C-H, C=O (carboxylic acid), and C=C (aromatic carbon) was detected at 3328, 2924, 1710, and 1533 cm -1 , respectively (Araujo et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2019;Krishnan et al, 2022). Furthermore, the bands at 1230 and 1020 cm -1 were attributed to the stretching vibration of cellulose and pyranose ring skeletal (Krishnan et al, 2022).…”

“…The main XRD diffraction peaks at 2θ = 30.3, 35.6, 57.55, and 62.96 were attributed to ( 220), ( 311), ( 511) and ( 440 of magnetite (Fe3O4) (Araujo et al, 2021). Meanwhile, the formation of maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) was assigned at 2θ = 33.23, 49.97, and 54.3 and attributed to (310), ( 421) and ( 430) (Figure 3b) (Krishnan et al, 2022). It confirmed that the components of iron oxide were successfully attached to the CO through the impregnation process.…”

“…The vibrational mode of O-H, C-H, C=O (carboxylic acid), and C=C (aromatic carbon) was detected at 3328, 2924, 1710, and 1533 cm -1 , respectively (Araujo et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2019;Krishnan et al, 2022). Furthermore, the bands at 1230 and 1020 cm -1 were attributed to the stretching vibration of cellulose and pyranose ring skeletal (Krishnan et al, 2022). The presence of the -SO3H group on the surface of CO-SO3H-Fe appeared at two vibration bands, i.e.…”

“…Araujo et al (2021) successfully inserted the magnetic behaviour into acai seedderived carbon material using the impregnation process followed by carbonization and sulfonation, and red mud was used as the magnetic source. Another synthesis of biomassbased magnetic solid acid catalyst was developed by Krishnan et al (Krishnan et al, 2022), performing a one-step impregnation process with Ferric sulphate -Ferrous sulphate solution mixture as a magnetic source as well as a sulfonation agent. Magnetic solid acid catalysts are very useful for chemical reactions specifically in esterification reactions for biodiesel production (Araujo et al, 2021;Ibrahim et al, 2019;Jenie et al, 2020;Krishnan et al, 2022).…”