Biodiesel production over copper vanadium phosphate

In the present study, copper vanadium phosphate (CuVOP) with three-dimensional network structure was synthesized by hydrothermal method, and was characterized by Infrared spectrum (IR), elemental analysis (EA), EDXRF (energy dispersive X ray fluorescence) etc. Moreover, soybean oil was used as feedstock for producing biodiesel, and biodiesel was produced by CuVOP-catalyzed transesterification process. Response surface methodology was employed to statistically evaluate and optimize the conditions for the maximum conversion to biodiesel, and the effects of amount of catalyst, ratio of methanol to oil, reaction time and reaction temperature were investigated by the 24 full-factorial central composite design. The maximum conversion is obtained at amount of catalyst of 1.5%, methanol/oil molar ratio of 6.75, reaction temperature of 65 oC and reaction time of 5 h. Copper vanadium phosphate CuVOP resulted very active in the transesterification reaction for biodiesel production. -- Research highlights: → Copper vanadium phosphate CuVOP with three-dimensional network structure was prepared successfully. Moreover, for the transesterification reaction of soybean oil with methanol under atmospheric pressure, CuVOP had higher catalytic activity and the effects of production conditions such as amount of catalysts etc. were analyzed by response surface methodology.