Production of Biodiesel from Baobab seed Oil

The trans-esterification of baobab seed oil in the presence of methanol to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) using Al-MCM-41 catalyst modified with an alkaline CaO was studied. The catalyst was prepared by calcination-hydration-dehydration technique, followed by impregnation with CaO. A maximum FAME conversion of 95% was obtained at 65 ˚C with a catalyst dosage of 1.5 wt%, oil/methanol ratio of 1:8 and a time of 2 h. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), BET-surface area while the biodiesel quality was verified by GC-MS analysis. Kinetic analysis showed reaction activation energy Ea of 32.5 kJmol−1 with collision factor A 6.7799, and a very low rate constant indicating that the catalytic reaction was kinetically controlled. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that the reaction was reversible, non-spontaneous and endothermic with positive value of enthalpy ΔH, negative entropy ΔS and positive ΔG were found to be 30.2 KJmol-1, -0.196 KJmol-1 and 41.96 KJmol−1K−1. It can be concluded that the alkaline CaO/Al-MCM-41 catalyst prepared in the present study is a promising green candidate for biodiesel production.