Biomass Group, Nanjing Agricultural University, PO Box 68, 40 Dianjiangtai Road, Nanjing 210031

Biodiesel is an environment-friendly renewable energy. The critical issues on biodiesel studies are the development of recyclable and reusable solid catalyst and the use of non-edible oil such as Jatropha oil as feedstock. Fang’s team from XTBG uses coprecipitation-calcination-reduction method to prepare solid CaFe₂O₄-Ca₂Fe₂O₅-Fe₃O₄-Fe catalyst with certain magnetism. This catalyst maintains a relative high activity on catalytic transesterification, and concurrently solves the separation of solid catalyst from products, as well as the disposal of waste acidic liquid and unwanted emulsification in homogeneous catalysis. The conversion of soybean and Jatropha oils to biodiesel over this catalyst reach 83.5% and 78.2%, respectively. The main active components of catalyst are calcium ferrites on the catalyst surface. The magnetic catalyst could be recycled and reused for three times, which shows a potential application for the green production of biodiesel.

Related paper titled “Biodiesel Production from Soybean and Jatropha Oils by Magnetic CaFe₂O₄-Ca₂Fe₂O₅-Based Catalyst” was published on the journal “Energy” (Energy, 2014, 68: 584-591, IF =3.65).

生物柴油是一种环境友好型可再生能源。开发可回收、再利用的固体催化剂，利用小桐子油为代表的非食用油为原料是生物柴油研究的关键。 （更多…）

半纤维素的损失以及不能有效地破坏纤维素的结晶结构，是木质纤维素水解液中糖得率低以及水解成本高的主要原因。稀酸水解可以有效地将半纤维素水解成糖，而这些糖可以有效地被细菌利用生成2,3-丁二醇(36.1%)。 （更多…）

Loss of hemicellulose and inability to effectively decrystallize cellulose, result in low yield and high cost of sugars derived from biomass. Dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment could easily remove most of hemicellulose as sugars. （更多…）

为了充分利用原料和获得具有高浓度糖的生物质水解液，微晶纤维素和小桐子果壳在经过离子液体（[BMIM]Cl）处理后再进行稀酸水解。相比于没有经过预处理的微晶纤维素，离子液体处理后的纤维素在水解后，还原糖的得率和浓度提高了139%, 水溶性产物的得率提高了128%。 （更多…）