Direct production of biodiesel from crude Euphorbia lathyris L. Oil catalyzed by multifunctional mesoporous composite materials

Abstract Efficient transformation of cheap non edible oil into biodiesel via heterogeneous catalysis is attractive to boost commercialization of biodiesel in one pot. Herein, a novel composite material (ZP-P[SIH]-2) was developed by hybridizing the sulfonic acid functionalized poly(ionic liquid) (P[SIH]) and zirconium phosphonate (ZP) for directly transforming crude Euphorbia lathyris L. oil. into biodiesel. The ZP-P[SIH]-2 was systematically characterized and exhibited multi-purpose functionalities and excellent properties, including acid-base bifunction, uniform dispersion of acid and base sites, rich mesoporous with 167 m2/g, and excellent hydrophobicity and wettability for the reaction substrates. These merits of the ZP-P[SIH]-2 afforded its high catalytic activity with 93% biodiesel yield under condition of 8 wt% ZP-P[SIH]-2 amount, 40:1 M ratio of MeOH to oil at 150 °C for 8 h, outperforming those of single P[SIH] and ZP, commercial acid resins, and even homogeneous acids (H3PW12O40 and H2SO4) and base (CaO). The catalytic reaction exhibiting low activation energy (29.82 KJ mol−1) obeyed pseudo-first order model and was endothermic. The ZP-P[SIH]-2 is heterogeneous and had no obvious reduction in catalytic activity after four cycles owing to being constructed by strong chemical bonds. Additionally, the fuel properties of prepared biodiesel fulfilled the international standards.