Sunflower oil methanolysis over modified CaO catalysts

Oil methanolysis over modified CaO catalysts was studied to assess the catalytic performance and to define an appropriate kinetic model. CaO was modified by commercial glycerol and a deep eutectic solvent (DES), choline chloride : glycerol (ChCl : Gly), to obtain catalytically active complexes of CaO and glycerol. The main goal was to investigate the effect of the obtained complexes on the reaction rate and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content and to describe the variation of the triacylglycerol (TAG) conversion degree during the reaction time. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was applied to confirm the formation of CaO complexes with glycerol or the glycerol-based DES. Different catalyst loadings (0.5, 1, and 5 % of oil weight) and methanol-to-oil molar ratios (6 : 1 and 12 : 1) were applied for investigation of the sunflower oil methanolysis at 60 oC. Two kinetic models were employed yielding the kinetic parameters, which depended on the catalyst loading and the methanol-to-oil molar ratio. Both models showed valid applicability for describing the kinetics of the reactions catalyzed by both complexes (the mean relative percent deviation was lower than 10 %).