Recent study finds ferromagnetic zinc oxide nanocomposite as a suitable heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production from castor oil.
The conventional method to produce biodiesel is basic transesterification using a homogeneous catalyst. But this process requires steps of neutralization and washing of the catalyst which increase biodiesel cost.
Some heterogeneous and lipase catalysts are being developed to fight against some of these drawbacks.
Now scientists from India have performed an experiment to synthesise biodiesel from castor oil using ferromagnetic zinc oxide nanocomposite as heterogenous catalyst.
Results showed that ferromagnetic zinc oxide nanocomposite could help to achieve a biodiesel yield of 91% under milder reaction conditions.
