Investigating the effect of nano bentonite based catalyst in biodiesel production process by infrared spectrometry

Production and consumption of biodiesel would reduce CO2 emission, while biodiesel proffers momentous environmental advantages such as deficiency of SOX (1). Nano bentonite was functionalized via silica sulfonic acid coated magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) to catalyze the esterification reaction of methanol and oil mixture to produce biodiesel. The nano bentonite surface was functionalization by nano magnetic particles which play the role of bridge between the gap of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis (2). This type of heterogeneous catalyst can be easily extracted and recovered from the final products. Moreover they are accessible from inexpensive materials and can be easily tuned by structural appropriate surface modifications. In fact using these type of catalysts both esterification and transesterification processes can be catalyzed simultaneously. Functionalized bentonite was characterized by by Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) Spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and being evaluated by FTIR Spectroscopy and chemometrics for pattern identification (3). On the other hand, trans-estrification of canola oil was catalyzed by fabricated nano bentonite catalyst as solid acidic catalyst. Production of biodiesel fuel was successfully carried out by nano catalyst and methyl ester formation was analyzed by using 1HNMR, 13CNMR, and FTIR spectroscopy, revealing the desired capabilities.