Although biodiesel is known to be an effective and environmentally sound replacement for petroleum diesel, it has remained a marginal fuel because of high production costs. The majority of this cost could be eliminated if high free fatty acid (FFA) waste oils were employed as the starting material rather than virgin oils. Because these kinds of oils require acid catalyzed pretreatment, we have been investigating a variety of mild Lewis acids as replacements for the highly caustic and sulfur containing H2SO4 which is the standard catalyst employed. Using oleic acid as a model FFA we have found SnX2 (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) to be an effective catalyst for this reaction and have also observed an interesting trend in reaction rates (I>Br>Cl>F). This poster will present our findings along with a discussion of their significance and the unique use of 1HNMR to determine the rates of these reactions.

Tin(II) halides as catalysts for the methylation of oleic acid

245th National Meeting (2013)

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