Chemical Engineering

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Chemical Engineering

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    Evaluation of Catalytic Activity of Synthesized Sulphated Zirconia for Triglyceride Cracking”
    (8th European Congress of Chemical Engineering. Berlin, Germany, 2011-09-25) Eterigho, Elizabeth Jumoke; Lee, J. G. M.; Harvey, A. P
    Conventional wet-precipitation method was used to synthesis sulphated zirconia using two different molar ratios of sulphating agents. (1) the first was using a molar ratio of 1: 45 of ZrOCl.8H20 impregnated with 1 M H2SO4 (wp) and (2) a molar ratio of 1: 6 was used for the modified conventional wet-precipitation method, (mwp).. The properties of both catalysts were examined by various techniques: EDX, XPS, FTIR, SEM, XRDP, Py-DRIFTS and BET nitrogen adsorption techniques. The variation in the molar ratio of the sulphating agent used during preparation led to sulphated zirconia that exhibited different properties in terms of specific surface areas, acid sites, thermal stability and surface sulphate. Both catalysts were catalytically active for triglycerides cracking for fatty acid methyl esters in a thermocatalytic reaction. The SZI not only exhibited higher conversion of triglycerides but higher FAMEs yield, approximately 50% after 3 h, as compared to SZ2 (39%). Interestingly, SZ1 was selective towards unsaturated esters whereas SZ2 was towards saturated esters.
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    Triglyceride cracking for biofuel production using a directly synthesised sulphated zirconia catalyst
    (Journal of Bioresource Technology, 2011-02-13) Eterigho, Elizabeth Jumoke; Lee, J. G. M.; Harvey, Philip A.
    In this study, sulphated zirconia was directly synthesised and compared to the conventional wet method of preparation. The surface areas and pore sizes were 169 m2/g, 0.61 lm (directly synthesized) and 65 m2/g, 0.24 lm (conventional method), respectively. Directly synthesized sulphated zirconia was amorphous, whereas conventionally prepared sulphated zirconia is polycrystalline. Their IR spectra were broadly similar, although the area of the 1250 to 950 cmÿ1 band was larger for directly synthesised sulphated zirconia. Not only were conversions greater for directly synthesised sulphated zirconia (63% vs. 42% after 4 h), but it exhibited significantly greater yield for fatty acid methyl esters. The percentage yield (after 1 h) of methyl esters was 43% for the directly synthesised catalyst and 15% for the conventionally synthesised