Biodiesel as an alternative fuel has become more important in recent times due to the increasing awareness of fossil fuel resources and the environmental benefits. The main disadvantages are its cost and availability of fats and oils resources. By collecting used frying oils and converting them to biodiesel fuel, the cost of biodiesel is significantly lowered and the negative impact of disposing used oil to environment reduced.The aim of this study was to analyse the performance of several alkali metal exchanged zeolites as heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production from sunflower oil and waste oil. Several catalysts studied showed a high activity for transesterification reaction with batch or continuous flow reactor operation conditions performed: temperature (100- 155°C), methanol/oil molar ratio (12:1- 72:1 mol/mol) and catalyst concentration (3-6 wt %). Results indicated that biodiesel production using waste oil as feedstock has good potential because it is an inexpensive and available feedstock.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston