Advanced Energy Materials and Research

Biography

Biography: Mohamed El Saied

Abstract

The future of oil-derived fuels, such as gasoline and diesel for use in the transportation and energy sectors, is unknown. The continuous dependence on the fossil fuel as a main source for energy, in which its combustion usually produces greenhouse and toxic gases (such as SO2, NOx and other pollutants), take part directly in causing the global warming and environmental pollution.  In addition to declining crude oil supplies and political instability in the regions with large oil reserves, strict emission regulations are creating a need for alternative fuels. One of these alternative fuels is biodiesel. The main objective of this study is to develop efficient and environmentally benign heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production. For this purpose, a heterogeneous AC@SO3H catalyst was prepared by sulfonation of activated carbon by using sulfonic acid, and the prepared catalyst was tested for the esterification of oleic acid. Various techniques such as X‐ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, infrared spectroscopy, were employed for the characterization of the solid catalyst. Sulfonic acid group-loaded activated carbon was next explored as heterogeneous catalyst to produce biodiesel from oleic acid. Various reaction parameters, such as methanol/oleic acid molar ratio, catalyst dosage, reaction temperature and time were systematically investigated. The obtained SO3H-AC catalyst exhibited good catalytic performance in the esterification of oleic acid and also showed good reusability. The performance of SO3H-AC for biodiesel production from waste vegetable oils was additionally explored and high methyl ester yield achieved. Accordingly, SO3H-AC appears promising as an industrial catalyst for the one-step biodiesel production from low-grade feedstock’s containing high levels of FFAs.