Transesterification of Pistacia chinensis seed oil using a porous cellulose-based magnetic heterogeneous catalyst

ABSTRACTIn the present work, a novel cellulose-based porous heterogeneous solid acid catalyst encapsulation of ferriferous oxide (Fe3O4) and sulfonated graphene (GO-SO3H) into cellulose to form composite porous microspheres catalyst (GO-SO3H/CM@Fe3O4)　was synthesized and evaluated for biodiesel production from Pistacia chinensis seed oil. The SEM, EDS and FTIR analysis revealed that the catalyst GO-SO3H/CM@Fe3O4 owned stronger active sites and GO-SO3H dispersed well in porous surface and inside of cellulose support. Under the optimum conditions, microwave-assisted transesterification process was carried out with the best catalyst amount, i.e. 5 wt% GO-SO3H/CM@Fe3O4 (weight ratio of GO-SO3H/cellulose), and conversion yield reached 94%. The prepared catalyst could be easily separated from reaction solution by extra magnetic field and reclaimed at least five runs.