Transesterification of palm oil over KOH/NaY zeolite in a packed-bed reactor

Abstract

The transesterification of palm oil to methyl ester was investigated on a KOH/NaY catalyst using a packed-bed reactor. The KOH/NaY was characterized by using XRD, nitrogen adsorption/desorption, SEM with EDS, CO2-TPD, and XRF. It was found that the KOH/NaY created strong basic sites, and the agglomeration was greatly increased by increasing the potassium content. The 15 wt % K/NaY exhibited good activity and the yield of FAME reached 92.18 % at 60 °C for 7 h. Additionally, the reusability of the catalyst was tested in order to observe deactivation of the catalyst from potassium leaching.