Biodiesel Synthesis from Palmitic Acid and Oleic Acid via Esterification Method using MgO base catalyst

The result shows that the characteristic peak of methoxy protons was observed as a singlet at 3.65 ppm and a triplet of α-CH2 protons at 2.27 ppm.13C NMR analysis indicates the conversion of palmitic acid and oleic acid into methyl palmitate and methyl oleate by the emergence of the resonance signal at 51.24 ppm in methyl ester due to methoxy carbon. The magnetic stirrer was purchased from Technico Instruments India Ltd. The glasswares used in all the experiments were made up of Schott Duran. 2.2 Synthesis of MgO Nanoparticles: MgO nanoparticles were synthesized using a typical procedure with our previous work5,6 by utilizing 0.5 M solution of magnesium nitrate as a precursor and 1 M of sodium hydroxide as a precipitating agent. 50 ml of NaOH solution was added drop by drop slowly under vigorous stirring to the 250 ml round bottom flask that contained 50 ml of precursor solution at the temperature of 50 - 55°C. Subsequently stirring was continued for 1 h at the same temperature and formed precipitate was filtered and dried in an oven at 100°C overnight. A common trend in conversion over catalyst is increase of acid conversion while increase in temperature7,8. Since esterification involves establishment of equilibrium, it is evident from these results that the shift in equilibrium towards ester side occurs with increase in temperature due to increase in activation energy9,10. [...]at the end of reaction time of 6 h, the peaks corresponding to oleic acid had almost disappeared, and only a triplet corresponding to that of the methyl ester was detected. 3.2.313C NMR Analysis of Oleic Acid and Methyl Oleate: The 13C NMR of the oleic acid and methyl oleate was shown in Fig 6 (a) and (b), respectively.