Tezislər / Theses

THE 3
rd
 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES OF STUDENTS AND YOUNG RESEARCHERS 
dedicated to the 99
th
anniversary of the National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev
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produce fatty esters such as methyl ester. Alkyl esters (typically methyl) are 
the main building elements of most of the utilized biodiesel rather than 
alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons of diesel derived from petroleum. It is 
worth mentioning that this fuel is known because of its high quality. Several 
methods are implemented in the process of transesterification, base catalyst 
transesterification is one of them which is used in this research:

The catalysts that are employed in this technique mainly are sodium 
hydroxide (NaOH), sodium methoxide, and potassium hydroxide. Among 
these, the most effective catalyst is sodium methoxide which is also not cost-
effective. This process is the chemical reaction between oil and alcohol, 
which is supervised with the use of a base catalyst. To accomplish the 
highest yield of biodiesel, it should be ensured that the temperature of the 
reaction is between 50°C and 60 °C. The reaction temperature should be 
controlled in a way that the boiling point of methanol is relatively higher, 
which minimizes the vaporization of methanol. To achieve an increase in the 
rate of reaction, the stirring process of 1300 rpm should support the process 
of dynamic mixing. The amount of time elapsed for the reaction is commonly 
1 hour (Rajalingam, 2016).
Transesterification of biodiesel can be carried out by using different 
microporous substances, called zeolites as heterogeneous basic catalysts, 
which is the main concern of this research together with homogenous 
catalysts. Their usage is also common practice, however, it has grave 
disadvantages. 
The troubles brought about by homogenous catalysts can be solved with 
the utilization of zeolites which have several advantages as: 

Extra production costs are avoided due to cheaper feedstock, easy 
separation processes, and the reusability of catalysts after the reaction. 

Pollution generated from the operation is reduced (Soybean oil methyl 
esters preparation using NaX zeolites loaded with KOH as a 
heterogeneous catalyst.). 

Toleration for high free fatty acid content, as well as wet conditions 
(Baskar Thangaraj, 2019). 

During heterogeneous basic catalyst usage, the saponification process 
which takes place if the proportion of free fatty acids in the feedstock is 
more than 2wt% and decreases biodiesel yield is avoided (Nomanbhay 
& Ong, 2017). 
As previously stated, the primary aim of this research is to carry out the 
analysis of the comparison between conventional homogeneous base-
catalyzed and heterogeneous zeolite catalyzed transesterification processes 
into biodiesel in terms of kinetics. Hence, KOH is chosen as the former one 
while the heterogeneous catalytic transesterification is carried out by a 
natural zeolite called clinoptilolite. Before starting the experiments, the acid 

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