Biodiesel Synthesis from Styrax confusus Hemsl Catalyzed by S2O8 2-/ZrO2-TiO2-Fe3O4

Biodiesel has been identified as a suitable resource that can be produced from biomass such as Styrax confusus Hemsl. In the current study, biodiesel was synthesized from Styrax confusus Hemsl oil catalyzed by a magnetic solid acid heterogeneous catalyst S2O8 (2-)/ZrO2-TiO2-Fe3O4, which had a high recovery rate and reusability. The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) adsorption. The properties of the catalyst, including the recovery rate, usage count, magnetic susceptibility and catalytic efficiency, were studied. The results showed that the catalyst has a BET pore diameter of 1.74 nm, BET area of 7.3 m(2)/g, molar magnetic susceptibility of 1.83 x 10(-5) m(3)/kg and tetragonal structure. In addition, the influences of reaction conditions on yields of biodiesel were also discussed. A fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield of 90.02 % was obtained under the conditions of reaction time 1.5 h, reaction temperature 373 K, catalyst amount 5 %, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio 8:1. A FAME yield of 65.5 % was obtained when the catalyst was used for the fourth time.