Single-Pot Synthesis of Biodiesel using Efficient Sulfonated-Derived Tea Waste-Heterogeneous Catalyst

Umer Rashid; Junaid Ahmad; Mohd Lokman Ibrahim; Jan Nisar; Muhammad Asif Hanif; Thomas Yaw Choong Shean

doi:10.3390/ma12142293

Single-Pot Synthesis of Biodiesel using Efficient Sulfonated-Derived Tea Waste-Heterogeneous Catalyst

Materials (Basel). 2019 Jul 18;12(14):2293. doi: 10.3390/ma12142293.

Authors

Umer Rashid¹, Junaid Ahmad², Mohd Lokman Ibrahim^{3

4}, Jan Nisar⁵, Muhammad Asif Hanif⁶, Thomas Yaw Choong Shean⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia. umer.rashid@upm.edu.my.
² Chemical Engineering Department, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates.
³ School of Chemistry and Environment, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁴ Center of Nanomaterials Research, Institute of Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁵ National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

The main purpose of this manuscript is to report the new usage of tea waste (TW) as a catalyst for efficient conversion of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) to biodiesel. In this work, we investigate the potential of tea waste char as a catalyst for biodiesel production before and after sulfonation. The activated sulfonated tea waste char catalyst was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), elemental composition (CHNS), nitrogen adsorption-desorption using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and ammonia-temperature-programmed desorption (NH₃-TPD). The activated tea waste char catalyst shows higher acid density of 31 μmol g^-1 as compared to tea waste char of 16 μmol g^-1 and higher surface area of 122 m²/g. The optimum fatty acid conversion conditions were found that 4 wt % of catalyst loading with 9:1 of methanol:PFAD for 90 min of reaction time at 65 °C gives 97% free fatty acid (FFA) conversion. In conclusion, the sulfonated tea waste (STW) catalyst showed an impressive catalytic activity towards the esterification of PFAD at optimum reaction conditions with significant recyclability in five successive cycles without any reactivation step.

Keywords: PFAD-biodiesel; characterization; sulfonation; waste tea-based catalyst.

Grants and funding

GP-IPB/2016/9490400/Universiti Putra Malaysia