Transesterification kinetics of Camelina sativa oil on metal oxide catalysts under conventional and microwave heating conditions

The reaction kinetics of transesterification of Camelina sativa oil using metal oxide catalysts under the conventional heating and the microwave-heating conditions were investigated. The transesterification reaction rates and the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) conversion rates were determined using heterogeneous metal oxide catalysts, i.e., BaO, CaO, MgO and SrO and two different heating methods. It was observed during the kinetic studies in this work that the BaO and SrO catalysts generated higher FAME yields than the CaO and MgO catalysts. A comparison between the conventional heating and the microwave-assisted transesterification processes showed that the reaction rate constants obtained in the microwave-assisted transesterification process are of two orders of magnitude higher than those obtained with the conventional heating method. Therefore, it can be well concluded that the heating method and solid catalysts play vital roles in improving the reaction kinetics and optimizing the reactors for biomass conversion to biodiesel.