Biodiesel from Rubber Seed Oil on Heterogeneous Catalyst: An Effective Way to Use Byproducts from Rubber Processing

Rubber seed oil is a low valued byproduct from rubber processing in VietNam. By using it for high yielded biodiesel conversion, we value up not only this byproduct but also have an alternative feedstock supply for biodiesel production. This work studies the production of biodiesel from rubber seed oil by a solid alkaline catalyst Na2SiO3/SiO2, which has an affordable cost and could reduce the disadvantages of the conventional homogenous catalysts. The optimal conditions for biodiesel production over as-synthesized Na2SiO3/SiO2 are: calcining temperature of catalyst is 900°C, catalyst amount is 3% by weight, methanol to oil ratio 0.3v/v, temperature reaction=60°C, time reaction=5 hours and the conversion efficiency of biodiesel is 94.1%. Suggested maximum blending ratio of biodiesel — petroleum diesel is B 20 when the concentration of exhaust gases such as COx, NOx, RH reduces significantly without engine modification.