• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.643-648
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• 2010

Production of biodiesel from soybean oil catalyzed by Lewis acidic ionic liquids(ILs) containing metal chloride salts was investigated in this study. Metal chloride salts, such as $SnCl_2$, $ZnCl_2$, $AlCl_3$, $FeCl_3$ and CuCl, were screened for oil transesterification in the range of 363-423 K. Among these metal chlorides, tin chloride showed particularly high catalytic property for the oil transesterification. Similarly, among these Lewis acidic ionic liquid catalysts, $[Me_3NC_2H_4OH]Cl-2SnCl_2$ resulted in a high fatty acid methyl esters(FAMEs) content of 91.1% under the following reaction conditions: 403 K, 14 h, and a molar ratio of 1:12:0.9 (oil:methanol:catalyst). Unlike the pure tin chloride catalysts, Lewis acidic ILs containing tin chloride $[Me_3NC_2H_4OH]Cl-2SnCl_2$ catalyst could be recycled up to five times without any significant loss of activity by separating from the FAMEs with simple decantation. The Lewis acidity and high moisture-stability of this catalyst appeared to be responsible for the excellent catalytic performance. The effects of reaction time and the molar ratio of methanol/catalyst to oil on the FAMEs production were also studied in this work.