Interesterification: An alternative route towards sustainable and greener biofuel

Transesterification is the main process to produce FAME biodiesel but is affected by some drawbacks related to the catalyst and by-products. The use of homogeneous basic catalyst hinder its recovery and imply the use of oils with low content of free fatty acids to prevent saponification. Moreover, glycerol production and separation adversely affects the final cost of biodiesel. In the present work, we explore an alternative process, the interesterification, which allows the one-pot synthesis of biodiesel and conversion of glycerol to triacetylglycerol. The reaction is catalyzed by acid heterogeneous nanomaterials, in particular, mesoporous Silica or Titania functionalized with acid groups. The activity of catalysts is monitored by GC-MS and fresh and spent catalysts are characterized by XRD, XPS, TGA and acidity measurements. Preliminary results show a correlation between conversion degree and acidity features of the catalysts.