In-situ synthesis of MCM-41 on ceramic membranes and its application in transesterification as catalyst support for p-toluenesulfonic acid

In this study, a new kind of solid acid catalyst p-toluenesulfonic acid/MCM-41/ceramic membrane was synthesized by in situ synthesis and impregnation method, which has shown its favorable catalytic activity, as verified in the transesterification and catalyst characterization. The catalyst was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The transesterification of palm oil and methanol results showed that p-toluenesulfonic acid/MCM-41/ceramic membrane had the highest catalytic activity with immersing p-toluenesulfonic acid solution concentration of 0.15 mol/L. Different operation parameters of the transesterification of palm oil with methanol, such as catalyst amount, catalytic mass ratio, reaction time, reaction temperature and methanol/palm oil molar ratio were investigated. Under the optimum conditions of 4 % of fresh catalyst (catalytic mass ratio is 4.37 %), 80 min of reaction time, reaction temperature of 120 °C and methanol to palm oil molar ratio of 12:1, a relatively high fatty acid methyl ester yield of 95.6 % was obtained.