Benchmarking Acidic and Basic Catalysis for a Robust Production of Biofuel from Waste Cooking Oil

The production of biodiesel at the industrial level is mainly based on the use of basic catalysts. Otherwise, also acidic catalysis allowed high conversion and yields, as this method is not affected by the percentage of free fatty acids present in the starting sample. This work has been useful in assessing the possible catalytic pathways in the production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), starting from different cooking waste oil mixtures, exploring particularly acidic catalysis. It was possible to state that the optimal experimental conditions required concentrated sulfuric acid 20% w/w as a catalyst, a reaction time of twelve hours, a temperature of 85 °C and a molar ratio MeOH/oil of 6:1. The role of silica in the purification method was also explored. By evaluating the parameters, type of catalyst, temperature, reaction time and MeOH/oil molar ratios, it has been possible to develop a robust method for the production of biodiesel from real waste mixtures with conversions up to 99%.