Productive esterification of Palm Fatty Acid Distillate under lignocellulosic biomass char of Rambutan Seeds waste-supported sulfonated catalyst

The current study focuses on examining the effectiveness of a palm fatty acid distillate and an acidic sulfonated char catalyst derived from lignocellulosic biomass (rambutan seed waste) in the production of biodiesel via esterification. The carbonaceous solid derived from lignocellulosic rambutan seed (RS) was prepared by carbonisation known as rambutan seed char (RSC), followed by sulfonation for acidic catalyst functionalization (RSC‒SO3H). The RS, RSC and RSC-SO3H were physically and chemically characterized using a surface area analyser, ammonia absorption measurement, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis, and morphology analysis by field emission scanning microscopy. The acid density of RSC-SO3H measured by TPD-NH3 was recorded at 5.62 mmol/g which is higher than that of the raw and charred samples, indicating the success of ‒SO3H impregnation on the RSC porous structure. This acidic catalyst efficacy was tested with a waste feedstock with a high FFA content, PFAD, for the esterification of biodiesel in a closed-system reactor. Response surface methodology was applied to PFAD esterification to study four main reaction variables: catalyst loading (1-5 wt %), reaction temperature (55–95 °C), methanol-PFAD molar ratio (9:1–21:1) and reaction time (1–5 h) by generating 31 experiments. The regression model's coefficient of determination, R2, and R2-adj were statistically measured and recognized as well-fitted at 0.994 and 0.988, respectively. The yield of 93.7 % was optimized under a fitted regression model that was esterified under these conditions; 2.2 wt % of catalyst loading, 83.7 °C, 19:1, 1.16 h. RS-SO3H catalyst reusability test, heterogeneity performance, and regeneration analysis were performed. Important biodiesel characteristics were evaluated and their adherence to international standards was analyzed.

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