Biodiesel fuel production using encapsulated CaO and photothermal exchange material under light irradiation

Abstract

CaO catalyst-photothermal exchange material-loaded alginate capsules were proposed in this study as a novel capsule type reactor for the methanolysis of rapeseed oil to biodiesel fuel (BDF) under light irradiation. It was revealed from the obtained results that CaO (100 mg/g-oil)-active carbon (0.5 mg/g-oil)-loaded capsules exhibited the best performance (BDF yield: 60% for 1 h and 90% for 6 h) under light irradiation with a full wavelength range (3.6 W). Under these reaction conditions, the BDF phase contained only 0.37% Ca from the CaO catalyst with a capsule breakage rate of 53%.