| Summary: | Biodiesel or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) obtained via esterification process is an alternative for industrial and transportation fuel. In this study, chromium-titanium mixed oxides catalyst synthesized via sol-gel method was used to catalyse the esterification of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) to produce FAME. Esterification was conducted in a batch reactor. The effects of reaction temperature, methanol to PFAD molar ratio, reaction time and reusability of catalyst were studied. Reaction conditions yielding the best performance of 89% FAME content were reaction temperature of 160°C, methanol to PFAD molar ratio of 3:1 and reaction time of 3 h. The catalyst can be reused for 3 times with 20% performance reduction between the first run and the third run. The results revealed that the mixed oxides of Cr-Ti is a potential heterogeneous catalyst for use in the esterification of high acid value feedstock of PFAD. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
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