Transesterification of coconut oil over alumina silicates prepared from rice husk silica and alumunium metal using electrochemical method

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate transesterification of coconut oil over aluminosilicate heterogeneous catalyst synthesized from rice husk silica and aluminum metal using electrochemical method. A series of aluminosilicates with different Si/Al ratios was produced by conducting the preparation at constant pH of 10 and constant time of 30 minutes, with varied potentials of 4, 6, 8, and 10 volts. Before use, the aluminosilicates were calcined at 300 °C for 2 hours, and then tested for transesterification experiments with the main purpose to study the catalytic activity for selection of the best catalyst, which was determined based on the reaction yields. The biodiesel produced was characterized using GC-MS method to confirm the conversion of fatty acids composing the coconut oil into their corresponding methyl esters. The results obtained indicate that all four catalysts exhibit good catalytic activity, with the highest yield (94%) was produced using the catalyst prepared at the potential of 8,assigned as Als10:8