Evaluation of silicoaluminophosphate catalyst in esterification reaction

The development of heterogeneous reaction for the esterification of vegetable oils catalysts has been effectively researched due to high market demand for increasingly cleaner fuels. Catalyst supports that feature textural properties conducive to this reaction are being tested, assessing your income and a possible application of these materials. In addition to support, it is necessary to use an active site, here represented by metal oxides, for better yield of the reaction. Among the heterogeneous catalysts, molecular sieves have presented relevant results in this area. The SAPO-5 has interesting properties for this reaction, since it is a crystalline microporous material and large pore, with excellent thermal and hydrothermal stability. The aim of this study was to obtain silicoaluminophosphate catalyst (SAPO), impregnated with molybdenum, and analyze the effects of using this in production of biodiesel through the esterification reaction. The SAPO-5 was synthesized by hydrothermal method and the metal was added by physical mixing. Three catalysts, varying the amount of the metal oxide of 1, 3 and 5% of MoO₃ in mass percentages were synthesized. All catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), spectroscopy X-ray energy dispersive analysis (EDX) and N₂ adsorption using the BET method. It was possible to verify that the impregnation of molybdenum oxide, the textural properties were affected. For esterification reaction, to the extent that increased the percentage of metal oxide, there was an increase in conversion with approximate performance of 83%. (author)