Efficient synthesis of biodiesel from Hyoscyamus niger L. seed oil by base catalysis

Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger L.) belongs to the genus Hyoscyamus of Solanaceae, and its seeds have a high oil content. To develop new raw materials for biodiesel, we developed Henbane seed oil for the first time to synthesize biodiesel. Fourteen supported solid base catalysts were prepared using γ-Al2O3 and mesoporous SiO2 as carriers, and their catalytic activities were screened. The K2O/γ-Al2O3 is a catalyst with excellent performance, which Hammett indicator titration, BET, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, and TG characterized. The experiment was designed by central composite design (CCD), and the optimum reaction conditions were obtained by response surface methodology (RSM). K2O/γ-Al2O3 was used as a catalyst to investigate the optimal transesterification reaction conditions. The reaction was carried out at 65.48 °C for 174.56 min, the molar ratio of oil to methanol was 1:9.19, and the amount of catalyst was 3.01 wt%. The predicted biodiesel yield was 90.25%, while the actual measured value was 90.54%. At the same time, we analyzed the composition of biodiesel by GC/MS, and determined the quality of biodiesel. The results met the European biodiesel standard EN14214.