Author(s)

Rihab Musaad Moawia¹, Mohamed Mahmoud Nasef^2,3, Nor Hasimah Mohamed⁴, Adnan Ripin¹, Hamdy Farag^5,6

¹School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia.
²Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, Malaysia.
³Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴Radiation Processing Technology Division, Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Kajang, Malaysia.
⁵Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
⁶Department of Material Process Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

The transesterification of cottonseed oil in the presence of methanol to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) using flax-based fibres catalyst modified with an alkaline moiety was studied. The catalyst was prepared by radiation induced grafting (RIG) of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) onto dignified flax fibres followed by amination with diethylamine (DEA) and treatment with NaOH solution. A maximum FAME conversion of 88.6% was obtained at 60°;C with a catalyst dosage of 2.5 wt%, an oil/methanol ratio of 1:33 and a time of 2 h. The biodiesel quality was verified by nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). Kinetic analysis showed a reaction activation energy of 69.33 kJ·molˉ¹ and a rate constant of 0.00349 minˉ¹ indicating that the catalytic reaction was kinetically controlled. Thermodynamic analyses revealed that the reaction was reversible, non-spontaneous and endothermic with an enthalpy of 66.62 kJ·molˉ¹. The obtained biodiesel showed physical and chemical characteristics complying with ASTM D6751. It can be concluded that the alkaline biopolymer catalyst prepared in the present study is a promising green candidate for biodiesel production.

Biodiesel Production, Radiation Grafted Basic Flax Fibres Catalyst, Cottonseed Oil, Transesterification Kinetics and Thermodynamics, Radiation Induced Grafting

Moawia, R. , Nasef, M. , Mohamed, N. , Ripin, A. and Farag, H. (2019) Production of Biodiesel from Cottonseed Oil over Aminated Flax Fibres Catalyst: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Behaviour and Biodiesel Properties. Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, 9, 281-298. doi: 10.4236/aces.2019.94021.