Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. fatty acids using solid acid SO₄^2-/ZrO₂-CeO₂ as catalyst

Solid acid SO₄^2-/ZrO₂-CeO₂ was prepared by co-precipitation impregnation method, which was used as catalyst for biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. fatty acids with methanol. Effects of CeO₂ loading and calcination temperature on performance of the catalyst were examined; besides, single factor experiments and kinetics were also studied. The results show that SO₄^2-/ZrO₂-CeO₂has higher catalytic activity. The conversion of fatty acids reaches 0.940 3 at 150 ℃ in 60 min when the weight ratio of catalyst to fatty acids is 8% and the volume ratio of methanol to acids is 2∶1. The kinetics calculation indicates that the apparent activation energy is 45.31 kJ/mol, and kinetic model is-dc_A/dt=38371e^-45310/RTc_A^1.44.