Biodiesel Production Using Hybrid Amino Functionalized Chitosan-Carbon Support as Green Catalyst

In this study, Functionalized chitosan with amine groups was synthesized and coated on the surface of carbon black. The hybrid amino functionalized chitosan-carbon support was employed as an efficient, environmentally friendly heterogeneous catalyst for the transesterification reaction of canola oil and methanol. It was observed that this hybrid was more active than parent polymer at the reaction condition. Furthermore, the reaction parameters, such as reaction temperature, molar ratio, amount of the catalyst and reaction time were studied. It was shown that the conversion of canola oil to methyl esters could reach to 95 % during 3.5 h when the reaction was performed with the molar ratio of methanol to canola oil of 12, a catalyst amount of 5 Wt.%, at the reaction temperature of 60 0C. These results can be explained by the inherent basicity of amines groups of amino functionalized chitosan on the surface of carbon support. This novel heterogeneous catalyst offers several attractive advantages such as high catalyst activity, easy recovery and reusability of the catalyst.