Mesoporous aluminosilicate from metakaolin with natural surfactants for waste cooking oil conversion to hydrocarbon fuels via low-temperature pyrolysis

The conversion of waste cooking oil to biofuel has been identified as a sustainable route to address energy issues. However, efficient conversion requires advanced catalysts to address challenges such as high acidity and thermal degradation. Sustainable catalyst production relying on naturally occurring materials reduced the overall carbon footprint and operational cost. This study investigates the transformation of kaolin minerals via metakaolinization into highly uniform mesoporous aluminosilicate nanoparticles when employing natural biosurfactants. The saponin extract from the Sapindus rarak plant was employed as a template to control morphology and mesoporosity. Synthesis of mesoporous aluminosilicate catalysts was conducted via sol-gel method to achieve uniform particle sizes (20–40 nm), with a pore volume of 0.55 cm³/g and a surface area of 197.29 m²/g. The catalyst demonstrated high performance with up to ∼99 % WCO conversion and 70 % hydrocarbon selectivity for C11–C14 and C15–C17.