PROCEEDINGS of the 28th Ibero-American Catalysis Congress

The increasing demand for air transport bring opportunities to the search of alternative non-conventional aviation fuel sources in the strategy of achieving environmental sustainability. In this study we investigate the hydroesterification of the distillation of two fractions (F1 and F2) of fatty acids from coconut oil on 12-tungsophosphoric acid supported on niobium pentoxide (TPA/Nb2O5). The catalyst was characterized by XRD, FTIR, N2 physisorption and NH3-TPD. Catalytic activity was evaluated under a variety of experimental conditions (catalyst mass loading, temperature, reaction time, and alcohol/distilled fatty acid molar ratio) for the ethyl esterification of F1, F2, and lauric acid (C12) as a model molecule. The best reaction conditions were: 15 wt% catalyst load, 120 ºC, for 4 h and molar ratio 1:11. Under these conditions, the yields were 92% and 90% for C12 and F1. For F2 equilibrium was not achieved under these conditions, due to the low concentration of C12 in its composition. Therefore, our contribution shows that TPA/Nb2O5 can be a promising catalyst for the conversion of biomass into biofuels.