One-pot microwave assisted catalytic transformation of vegetable oil into glycerol-free biodiesel

The present study is our attempt to develop a first robust protocol for one-pot transformation of vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, to a mixture of FAMEs and glycerol ether derivatives as final potential biofuel. The reaction is catalyzed by amorphous silica oxide functionalized with 10 wt% of sulfonic groups. The best performance was observed when a mixture of substrate/tert- butyl-methyl ether in 1:10 ratio and almost 1% catalyst was treated under microwave conditions fixed at 20 W. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.