The Effect of Silica-Titania Catalyst Loading on the Production of Biodiesel from Palm and Waste Cooking Oil

A study about the effect silica-titania catalyst loading on biodiesel production from palm oil and waste oil has been conducted. The silica titania catalyst has been synthesized by solid state method and characterized by FTIR and DR UV-Vis to investigate the formation of Si-O-Ti bond from Si and Ti precursors. The synthesized silica-titania catalyst has been applied for biodiesel production with variation of catalyst mass to oil as to be 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9%. The biodiesel products have been examined for their physical properties such as density, flow rate, and acid number. The percentage of conversion obtained to be 91% for waste cooking oil (1.33% FFA) and 33.33% for palm oil (0.374% FFA). The finding is justified that silica-titania catalyst has active acid site formed through Si-O-Ti bonding.