Hydrolysis reaction of Brazilian macauba oil using usy zeolite and phosphated niobia as catalysts

The commercial use of macauba oil feasible and make it a desirable species, where the hydrolysis process of trilglycerides is a promising alternative for obtaining fatty acids. After hydrolysis, glycerin is removed and the fatty acids generated later can be used for the production of biodiesel. This research also innovates due to the challenge of using heterogeneous catalysts based on niobium oxide impregnated with phosphoric acid, which presented superior results in the hydrolysis process when compared with H-USY zeolite. It should be noted that the best catalytic performance has a straight relationship with the increase in acid characteristics acquired by such catalysts in the hydrolysis reaction, where it had conversions higher than 90%. In the conditions used in this work, we can conclude that the introduction of phosphoric acid in the reaction medium of Nb2O5 positively influences acidic, textural properties such as pore diameter and catalytic properties even at temperatures above 500°C, in addition to presenting high activity, selectivity. It is noteworthy that the phosphating process of niobic acid (Nb2O5.nH2O) generated a much more active catalyst, H3PO4/Nb2O5.