Biodiesel production by free fatty acid esterification using lanthanum (La3+) and HZSM-5 based catalysts

In this work the use of the heterogeneous catalysts pure (LO) and sulfated (SLO) lanthanum oxide, pure HZSM-5 and SLO/HZSM-5 (HZSM-5 impregnated with sulfated lanthanum oxide (SO42−/La2O3)) was evaluated. The structural characterization of the materials (BET) showed that the sulfation process led to a reduction of the SLO and SLO/HZSM-5 surface area values. FTIR showed bands characteristic of the materials and, FTIR-pyridine indicated the presence of strong Brønsted sites on the sulfated material. In the catalytic tests the temperature was the parameter that most influenced the reactions. The best reaction conditions were: 10% catalyst, 100 °C temperature and 1:5 mOA/mmeOH for LO, SLO, SLO/HZSM-5 and 10% catalyst, 100 °C temperature and 1:20 mOA/mmeOH for HZSM-5. Under these conditions the conversions were: 67% and 96%, for LO and SLO, respectively and 80% and 100%, for HZSM-5 and SLO/HZSM-5, respectively. All catalysts deactivated after the first use, but the deactivation of SLO/HZSM-5 was smaller.