<p>Preliminary testing of hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor for biodiesel production through transesterification of soybean oil with methanol over modified-carbon catalyst was investigated. This research focused on synergetic roles of non-thermal plasma and catalysis in the transesterification process. The amount of modified-carbon catalyst with grain size of 1.75 mm was placed into fixed tubular reactor within discharge zone. The discharge zone of the hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor was defined in the volume area between high voltage and ground electrodes. Weight Hourly Space Velocity (WHSV) of 1.85 h-1 of reactant feed was studied at reaction temperature of 65 oC and at ambient pressure. The modified-carbon catalyst was prepared by impregnation of active carbon within H2SO4 solution followed by drying at 100 oC for overnight and calcining at 300 oC for 3 h. It was found that biodiesel yield obtained using the hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor was 92.39% and 73.91% when using active carbon and modified-carbon catalysts, respectively better than without plasma. Therefore, there were synergetic effects of non-thermal plasma and catalysis roles for driving the transesterification process. Copyright © 2016 BCREC GROUP. All rights reserved</p><p><em>Received: 10<sup>th</sup> November 2015; Revised: 16<sup>th</sup> January 2016; Accepted: 16<sup>th</sup> January 2016</em></p><p><strong>How to Cite:</strong> Buchori, L., Istadi, I., Purwanto, P., Kurniawan, A., Maulana, T.I. (2016). Preliminary Testing of Hybrid Catalytic-Plasma Reactor for Biodiesel Production Using Modified-Carbon Catalyst.<em> Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis</em>, 11 (1): 59-65. (doi:10.9767/bcrec.11.1.416.59-65) </p><p><strong>Permalink/DOI</strong>: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.11.1.416.59-65">http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.11.1.416.59-65</a></p><p> </p><p> </p>
Biodiesel Production using Oil Extracted from Cooling Pond Wastewater by Esterification of Sulfonated Carbon Catalyst and Transesterification of Na2CO3 Catalyst
