In order to reduce or avoid the fluctuations from interface breakup, a meandering microchannel with curved multi-bends (44 turns) is fabricated, and investigations of scaling bubble/slug length in Taylor flow in a rectangular meandering microchannel are systematically conducted. Based on considerable experimental data, quantitative analyses for the influences of two important characteristic times, liquid phase physical properties and aspect ratio are made on the prediction criteria for the bubble/slug length of Taylor flow in a meandering microchannel. A simple principle is suggested to predict the bubble formation period by using the information of Rayleigh time and capillary time for six gas-liquid systems with average deviation of 10.96%. Considering physical properties of the liquid phase and cross-section configuration of the rectangular mcirochannel, revised scaling laws for bubble length are established by introducing Ca, We, Re and W/h whether for the squeezing-driven or shearing-driven of bubble break. In addition, a simple principle in terms of Garstecki-type model and bubble formation period is set-up to predict slug lengths. A total of 107 sets of experimental data are correlated with the meandering microchannel and operating range:0.001 < Ca_TP < 0.05, 0.06 < We_TP < 9.0, 18 < Re_TP < 460 using the bubble/slug length prediction equation from current work. The average deviation between the correlated data and the experimental data for bubble length and slug length is about 9.42% and 9.95%, respectively.

The radial multiple jets-in-crossflow mixing structure (RMJCMS) is extensively used in industrial manufacture. In this research, the effects of thickness of injection ring on mixing performance and factors influencing the mixing performance of RMJCMS were discussed based on the results of computational fluid dynamics. The simulation results showed that the dimensionless mixing distance, with the increase of the thickness of injection ring, drops from 1.1 to 0.18 first and then increases to 0.27 while the uniformity of flux monotonously improves, manifesting that the consistency of flux is not the single element determining the mixing performance. Analyzing the simulation results, a conclusion was drawn that the consistency of flux, penetration mode and interaction among injection flows which can be altered by adjusting the thickness of injection ring, determine the mixing performance of RMJCMS jointly. That is to say, in RMJCMS an injection ring with a suitable thickness can realize the function of injection and rectification simultaneously, which not only improves the mixing performance but also reduces the complexity of RMJCMS as well.

The traditional fixed-bed reactor design is usually not suitable for the low tube-to-particle diameter ratios (N=D/d < 8) where the local phenomena of channeling near the wall and backflow in the bed are dominant. The recent "solid particle" meshing method is too complicated for mesh generation, especially for non-spherical particles in large random packed beds, which seriously hinders its development. In this work, a novel high-fidelity mesh model is proposed for simulation of fixed bed reactors by combining the immersed boundary and adaptive meshing methods. This method is suitable for different shapes of particles, which ingeniously avoids handling the complex "contact point" problem. Several packed beds with two different shapes of particles are investigated with this model, and the local flow in the bed is simulated without geometrical simplification. The predicted pressure drop across the fixed bed and heat transfer of the single particle are in good agreement with the corresponding empirical relations. Compared with spherical particles, the packed bed packing with pentaphyllous particles has lower pressure drop and better heat/mass transfer performance, and it shows that this method can be used for the screening of particle shapes in a fixed bed.

Rotor-stator reactor (RSR), an efficient mass transfer enhancer, has been applied in many fields. However, the hydrodynamic characteristics of liquid flow in RSR are still a mystery despite they are fundamental for the mass transfer performance and processing capacity. In view of the above, this paper studies the liquid-liquid flow and liquid holdup in RSR under various conditions with a high-speed camera. The paper firstly demonstrates two flow patterns and liquid holdup patterns that we obtained from our experiment and then presents in succession a flow pattern and a liquid holdup criterion for the transition of film flow to filament flow and complete filling to incomplete filling. It is found that experimental parameters, including rotor-stator distance, rotational speed and volume flow rate exert great influence on the average droplet diameter and size distribution. Besides, by comparison and contrast, we also find that the experimental values match well with our previous predicted calculations of the average diameter, and the relation between the average diameter and the mean energy dissipation rate.

Supercritical carbon dioxide microemulsions are great medium to combine two immiscible substances through forming nanoscale polar cores in nonpolar continuous phase with the help of proper surfactants. The properties of microemulsions could be significantly affected by their constituents and structures. In this work, molecular dynamics simulation was implemented to study supercritical carbon dioxide microemulsions containing ionic liquid[bmim] [PF₆] and water by adding surfactant Ls-36. Results showed that the above components could form spherical aggregates in CO₂ bulk phase with[bmim] [PF₆] and some water as the inner core, surfactant headgroups and water as the intermediate shell, and surfactant tails as the outer shell. The microstructure information about the outer shell was further investigated by defining an angle between the surfactant tail and the normal direction of the aggregate outer surface, which ranged from 78° to 125°. The influence of the ionic liquid content on the size and structure of microemulsions was explored and the best molar ratio between the ionic liquid and surfactant was around 1.25 for getting maximum water solubility.

This work aims at comparing surface tension models in VOF (Volume of Fluid) modeling and investigating the effects of gas distributor and gas velocity. Hydrodynamics of a continuous chain of bubbles inside a bubble column reactor was simulated. The grid independence study was first conducted and a grid size of 1.0 mm was adopted in order to minimize the computing time without compromising the accuracy of the results. The predictions were validated by comparing the experimental studies reported in the literature. It was found that all surface tension models can describe the bubble rise and bubble plume in a column with slight deviations.

Mild stir-assisted membrane dispersion extraction (MDE) method was employed to enhance propionic acid (HA) extraction and compared to the mechanical stirred extraction (MSE) method. Triocylamine (TOA) and tributyl phosphate (TBP) were chosen as model extractant to extract HA. Firstly, droplet size and the size distribution of organic phase were analyzed, and then the effects of phase ratio, extractant and HA concentration on extraction performance were investigated. Comparing the two extraction methods, the results show mild stir-assisted MDE method reduced the mass transfer equilibrium time compared to MSE method. The mass transfer mechanism was explored by analyzing mass transfer resistance. Mild stir-assisted MDE had less total mass transfer resistance than MSE. When the extractant concentration was 40%, the extraction process was controlled by organic phase mass transfer process with HA volume fraction was 1% and controlled by both of reaction process and organic phase mass transfer process when HA concentration increased to 5%. This work may provide a new type of extraction method for the recovery of organic carboxylic acid.

Low temperature coal tar contained a large amount of phenols, aromatic hydrocarbons and alkanes; the separation of phenols from coal tar has a great significance to the deep processing of coal tar. In this work, the separation of m-cresol from cumene and n-heptane by liquid-liquid extraction using ionic liquids (ILs) as extractants was studied. The suitable ILs were screened by conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) model and the liquid-liquid phase equilibrium (LLE) experiments were to verify the accuracy of the screening results. The extraction conditions such as extraction time, extraction temperature and mass ratio of ILs to model oils were evaluated. An internal mechanism of the m-cresol extract by ILs was revealed by COSMO-RS calculation and FT-IR. The results showed that the selected ILs can extract m-cresol effectively from cumene and n-heptane, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (emimCH₃COO) was the best extraction solvent. A hydrogen bond between anion of ILs and phenolic hydroxyl groups was observed. M-cresol in model oils could be extracted with extraction efficiencies up to 98.85% at an emimCH₃COO:model oils mass ratio of 0.5 and 298.15 K, emimCH₃COO could be regenerated and reused for 4 cycles without obvious decreases in extraction efficiency and extractant mass.

The BF₃/n-BuOH complexes were investigated as active species in catalyzing n-decene polymerization reaction. The structures of BF₃/n-BuOH complexes were characterized not only by modern spectrum but also by calculation at theoretical level. The results confirmed that BF₃/n-BuOH complexes changed from BF₃·(n-BuOH)₂ complexes to BF₃·n-BuOH complexes with the mass fraction of BF₃ increasing. These two complexes have different catalytic activity, but BF₃·n-BuOH was superior. The highest n-decene conversion could reach 99% and the most excellent selectivity of n-decene trimer and tetramer could reach up to 80% yield by a series of controlled conditions. This work can help to understand the catalytic active species of n-decene polymerization and provide support for industrialization of poly-alpha-olefins (PAOs).

In this work, a series of SO₄^2-/TiO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ solid acid catalysts were synthesized by impregnation method, in which nano-TiO₂ was prepared by sol-gel method, and then the nano-TiO₂ sol was loaded on porous γ-Al₂O₃ supporter through impregnation. The structure and property of catalyst were characterized by XRD, N₂-BET, SEM, TEM, XPS, NH₃-TPD, Pyridine-IR and FT-IR. In addition, the catalyst of chelate bidentate coordination acid center model was established. The catalytic performance test was carried out in the esterification of n-butyl alcohol with lauric acid and the catalyst showed excellent activity. The experimental results showed that the medium strength acid sites were more dominant active sites than the strong and weak acid sites for the rapid esterification reaction. Its kinetic behaviors and activation energy were studied for the esterification under the catalytic reaction condition.

In this paper, Ni/Zr-Yb-O catalysts with different sodium contents are prepared by a co-precipitation method, using aqueous Na₂CO₃ solution as a precipitant, and the effect of sodium on the catalyst structure and catalytic performance for syngas methanation is extensively investigated using five Ni/Zr-Yb-O catalysts, containing 0, 0.5, 1.5, 4.5 and 13.5 wt% Na⁺, those are denoted as Cat-1, Cat-2, Cat-3, Cat-4 and Cat-5 respectively. It is found that the interaction between Ni and support determines the catalytic performance of Ni/Zr-Yb-O and the residual sodium content negatively affects the interaction between Ni and support. Cat-1 exhibits an excellent catalytic performance. During a long run time of 380 h, no deactivation is observed and both CO conversion and CH₄ selectivity maintain a level above 90%. However, Cat-3 and Cat-5 suffer rapid deactivation under the same reaction condition. The characterization results indicate the strong interaction between Ni and support enables Cat-1 to possess well dispersed Ni species, resistance to sintering and carbon deposition and thus the excellent catalytic performance. However, the presence of sodium ions over Ni/Zr-Yb-O degrades the interaction between Ni and support and the catalytic performance, especially for the stability. The relative weak interaction between Ni and support results in severe sintering of both ZrO₂ and Ni under the reaction condition, carbon deposition and the poor catalytic performance.

Chemical spills on complex geometry are difficult to model due to the uneven concentration distribution caused by air flow over ground obstacles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is one of the powerful tools to estimate the building-resolving wind flow as well as pollutant dispersion. However, it takes too much time and requires enormous computational power in emergency situations. As a time demanding task, the estimation of the chemical spill consequence for emergency response requires abundant wind field information. In this paper, a comprehensive wind field reconstruction framework is proposed, providing the ability of parameter tuning for best reconstruction accuracy. The core of the framework is a data regression model built on principal component analysis (PCA) and extreme learning machine (ELM). To improve the accuracy, the wind field estimation from the regression model is further revised from local wind observations. The optimal placement of anemometers is provided based on the maximum projection on minimum eigenspace (MPME) algorithm. The fire dynamic simulator (FDS) generates high-resolution data of wind flow over complex geometries for the framework to be implemented. The reconstructed wind field is evaluated against simulation data and an overall reconstruction error of 9% is achieved. When used in real case, the error increases to around 12% since no convergence check is available. With parameter tuning abilities, the proposed framework provides an efficient way of reconstructing the wind flow in congested areas.

With a growing population, an increasing number of petrochemical facilities are built with larger capacity and more complexity, which pose a great risk to assets, community and environment. The value of inherently safer design is recognized with time by all stakeholders, and an effective tool is needed to evaluate and compare inherent safety of alternative technologies. This study developed a safety index to evaluate existing technologies for their safety levels and guide inherently safer design. The Integrated Risk-based Safety Index (IRSI) was developed based on a comprehensive review of petrochemical processes, incident cases from Sinopec and US Chemical Safety Board, and existing safety index systems. The IRSI included all major hazards, including fire, explosion, toxic release, dust explosion, physical explosion, and runaway. Also, the integrated life cycle approach considered chemical hazards, equipment failure rates and safety measures in this risk-based index. Advanced modeling techniques, PHAST simulation and Neural Network, were used in the development of three novel sub-indices in the projects, fire, explosion and toxic release. The index system could be easily incorporated into a user friendly tool for the ease of application. A case study of hydrogen dioxide was conducted using the IRSI, which showed its capability for evaluating the safety level of process facilities.

Raw material blending process is an essential part of the cement production process. The main purpose of the process is to guarantee a certain oxide composition for the raw meal at the outlet of the mill by regulating the four raw materials. But the chemical compositions of raw materials vary from time to time, resulting in difficulties to control the oxide compositions to a predefined value. Therefore, a novel algorithm to estimate the chemical compositions of the raw materials is developed. The paper mainly consists of two parts. In model construction part, a novel constrained least square model is proposed to overcome the deviation introduced by long-term drift of the material components, and the model parameters are estimated with an online strategy. And in validation part, the approach is implemented to two examples including datasets from simulation model and the actual industrial process. The final results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

To enhance the explosion suppression effects of water mist, various potassium halide additives were tested in a confined vessel filled with a 10% mixture of methane/air. Air and CO₂ (0.7 MPa) were used as driver gases. The results revealed that halide additives exhibit considerable suppression effects on explosion overpressure. A 30% KI mist decreased the explosion overpressure by 27.46% compared with the suppression by pure water mist under the same conditions. When CO₂ is used as the driver gas, it will dissolve in water under high pressure. The synergistic effect of a CO₂ solution with an effective additive afforded significant suppression. Under the same conditions, the overpressures suppressed by a mist of 30% KI + 0.7 MPa CO₂ solution decreased by 33.53% compared with those suppressed by pure water mist driven by air. The synergistic suppression effect is much better than that of a 0.7 MPa CO₂ solution mist or 30% KI mist alone. The multicomponent additives can be considered when suppressing methane/air explosions with pressure-formed water mist.

Training sample selection is widely accepted as an important step in developing a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic model. For industrial applications, the initial training dataset is usually selected empirically. This process is time-consuming, and updating the structure of the modeling dataset online is difficult. Considering the static structure of the modeling dataset, the performance of the established NIR model could be degraded in the online process. To cope with this issue, an active training sample selection and updating strategy is proposed in this work. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it can select suitable modeling samples automatically according to the process information. Moreover, it can adjust model coefficients in a timely manner and avoid arbitrary updating effectively. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by applying the method to an industrial gasoline blending process.

The catalytic performance of Mo supported on hierarchical alumina-silica (Si/Al=15) with Mo loadings of 3, 6 and 15 wt% was investigated for the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of model and real oil samples. Hierarchical alumina-silica (hAl-Si) was synthesized by economical and ecofriendly silicate-1 seed-induced route using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as mesoporogen. The effect of CTAB on the structure of catalyst was studied by characterization techniques. The results revealed that 6%Mo/hAl-Si had the highest sulfur removal compared to the other catalyst loadings. The effect of operating parameters was evaluated using Box-Behnken experimental design. The optimal desulfurization conditions with the 6%Mo/hAl-Si catalyst were determined at oxidation temperature of 67℃, oxidation time of 42 min, H₂O₂/S molar ratio of 8 and catalyst dosage of 0.008 g·ml^-1 for achieving a conversion of 95%. Under optimal conditions, different sulfur-containing compounds with initial concentration of 1000 ppm, Dibenzothiophene (DBT), Benzothiophene (BT) and Thiophen (Th), showed the catalytic oxidation reactivity in the order of DBT > BT > Th. According to the regeneration experiments, the 6%Mo/hAl-Si catalyst was reused 4 times with a little reduction in the performance. Also, the total sulfur content of gasoline and diesel after ODS process reached 156.6 and 4592.2 ppm, respectively.

CaO needs to show high activity to be used as Ca-sorbent and slagging agent. Hydration activity is an important characteristic to evaluate the activity of CaO. In this study, carbide slag from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry was utilized as precursor for preparing high activity CaO. The roles of crystallite grain, average pore diameter (APD) and volume fraction of pore < 200 nm in diameter (VF200) in hydration activity of CaO from carbide slag (CS-CaO) were respectively investigated. The hydrolysis kinetics model of CaO shows a three-dimensional spherically symmetric diffusion model (D4), which suggests that hydration activity was mainly associated with APD and VF200 of CS-CaO with limited correlation to the crystal size. Specifically, the hydration activity of CS-CaO is increased with increasing VF200, while decreased with increasing APD. Under the invariable calcination temperature, the core-shell structure formed by the addition of graphite or CaCO₃ to CS effectively inhibits the sintering of CS-CaO and improves VF200. Consequently, the hydration activity of CS-CaO increased from 22.79℃·min^-1 to 27.19℃·min^-1 and to 29.27℃·min^-1, with addition of 5% graphite or 5% CaCO₃ into carbide slag, respectively.

Soluble portions (SPs) 1-4 (SP₁-SP₄) were afforded from sequentially dissolution and alkanolyses of Baiyinhua lignite (BL) in cyclohexane, CH₃OH, CH₃CH₂OH, and (CH₃)₂CHOH at 300℃. They were analyzed with a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer and quadrupole exactive orbitrap mass spectrometer (QEOTMS) with an atmosphere pressure chemical ionization source in positive-ion mode, while BL was characterized with an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XRPES). The results show that the yields of SP₂ and SP₃ are much higher than those of SP₁ and SP₄, and the total SP yield is ca. 39.0%. According to the analysis with XRPES, pyrrolic nitrogen atoms are the most abundant nitrogen existing forms in BL. Thousands of nitrogen-containing aromatics (NCAs) were resolved with QEOTMS and their molecular masses are mainly in the range of 200-450 u. The main NCAs are N₁O₁ and N₁O₂ class species with double bond equivalent values of 4-18 and carbon numbers of 7-30. The nitrogen atoms appear in pyridines, quinolines, benzoquinolines or acridine, and dibenzoquinolines or naphthoquinolines, while the oxygen atoms exist in methoxy and furan rings.

The yield of tar and syngas has been investigated by catalytic pyrolysis of Pingzhuang lignite (PZL) over Ca(OH)₂ catalyst in temperature range of 600℃-1000℃ in a tube furnace. The results show that the yield of volatile pyrolysis increases and char decreases with rising temperature for both raw and catalyzed Pingzhuang lignite. The hydrogen fraction (H₂) increased from 20% to 40% for the PZL sample; but, for the PZL-Ca(OH)₂ sample, H₂ fraction fluctuated randomly between 35% to 42%, with the maximum H₂ fraction found at 1000℃. The Gaschromatography mass-spectroscopic (GC-MS) analysis revealed that the maximum tar yield at 800℃ and 700℃ was obtained for PZL and PZL-Ca(OH)₂, respectively. The surface morphology of PZL and PZL-Ca(OH)₂ chars underwent different transformation in the presence of catalyst as illustrated by SEM/EDX, FTIR, and BET analysis. Furthermore, char sample was investigated for the carbon conversion and reactivity index using TGA analysis under N₂ and CO atmosphere.

Microalgae cultivation has gained tremendous attention in recent years due to its great potential in green biofuel production and wastewater treatment application. Membrane technology is a great solution in separating the microalgae biomass while producing high quality of permeate for recycling. The main objective of this study was to investigate the filtration performance of Ag/GO-PVDF (silver/graphene oxide-polyvinylidene fluoride) membrane in an algalmembrane photoreactor (A-MPR) by benchmarking with a commercial PVDF (com-PVDF) membrane. In this study, Chlorella vulgaris microalgae was cultivated in synthetic wastewater in an A-MPR for ammoniacal-nitrogen and phosphorus recovery and the wastewater was further filtered using Ag/GO-PVDF and com-PVDF membranes to obtain high quality water. Spectrophotometer was used to analyze the chemical oxidation demand (COD), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₃-N) and phosphate (PO₄^3-). The concentration of proteins and carbohydrates was measured using Bradford method and phenol-sulfuric acid method, respectively. The COD of the synthetic wastewater was reduced from (180.5 ±5.6) ppm to (82 ±2.6) ppm due to nutrient uptake by microalgae. Then, the Ag/GO-PVDF membrane was used to further purify the microalgae cultivated wastewater, resulting in a low COD permeate of (31 ±4.6) ppm. The high removal rate of proteins (100%) and carbohydrates (86.6%) as the major foulant in microalgae filtration, with low membrane fouling propensity of Ag/GO-PVDF membrane is advantageous for the sustainable development of the microalgae production. Hence, the integrated A-MPR system is highly recommended as a promising approach for microalgae cultivation and wastewater polishing treatment.

The exploration of polymer electrolyte in the field of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) can contribute to increase the invention of renewable energy applications. In the present work, the influence of imidazole on the poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-Ethylene carbonate (EC)-KI-I₂ polymer blend electrolytes has been evaluated. The different weight percentages of imidazole added into polymer blend electrolytes have been prepared by solution casting. The prepared films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV-visible spectra, photoluminescence spectra and impedance spectroscopy. The surface roughness texture of the film was analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The ionic conductivity of the optimized polymer blend electrolyte was determined by impedance measurement, which is 1.95×10^-3 S·cm^-1 at room temperature. The polymer electrolyte containing 40 wt% of imidazole content exhibits the highest photo-conversion efficiency of 3.04% under the illumination of 100 mW·cm^-2. Moreover, a considerable enhancement in the stability of the DSSC device was demonstrated.

To reasonably utilize the coal direct liquefaction residue (DLR), contrasting research on the co-pyrolysis between different low-rank coals and DLR was investigated using a TGA coupled with an FT-IR spectrophotometer and a fixed-bed reactor. GC-MS, FTIR, and XRD were used to explore the reaction mechanisms of the various co-pyrolysis processes. Based on the TGA results, it was confirmed that the tetrahydrofuran insoluble fraction of DLR helped to catalyze the conversion reaction of lignite. Also, the addition of DLR improved the yield of tar in the fixed-bed, with altering the composition of the tar. Moreover, a kinetic analysis during the co-pyrolysis was conducted using a distributed activation energy model. The co-pyrolysis reactions showed an approximate double-Gaussian distribution.

TiO₂ pigments are typically coated with inert layers to suppress the photocatalytic activity and improve the weatherability. However, the traditional inert layers have a lower refractive index compared to TiO₂, and therefore reduce the lightening power of TiO₂. In the present work, a uniform, amorphous, 2.9-nm-thick TiO₂ protective layer was deposited onto the surface of anatase TiO₂ pigments according to pulsed chemical vapor deposition at room temperature, with TiCl₄ as titanium precursor. Amorphous TiO₂ coating layers exhibited poor photocatalytic activity, leading to a boosted weatherability. Similarly, this coating method is also effective for TiO₂ coating with amorphous SiO₂ and SnO₂ layers. However, the lightening power of amorphous TiO₂ layer is higher than those of amorphous SiO₂ and SnO₂ layers. According to the measurements of photoluminescence lifetime, surface photocurrent density, charge-transfer resistance, and electron spin resonance spectroscopy, it is revealed that the amorphous layer can prevent the migration of photogenerated electrons and holes onto the surface, decreasing the densities of surface electron and hole, and thereby suppress the photocatalytic activity.

Biodiesel is a green fuel which can replace diesel while addressing various issues such as scarcity of hydrocarbon fuels and environmental pollution to an extent. The high production cost of biodiesel and the recovery of the catalyst after the transesterification process are the major challenges to be addressed in biodiesel production. In the present work, a cheap and promising solid base oxide catalyst was synthesized from chicken eggshell by calcination at 900℃ forming catalyst eggshells (CES) and was impregnated with the nanomagnetic material (Fe₃O₄) to obtain Fe₃O₄ loaded catalytic eggshell (CES-Fe₃O₄). Fe₃O₄ nanomaterials were synthesized by co-precipitation method and were loaded in catalytic eggshell by sonication, for better recovery of the catalyst after transesterification process. CES-Fe₃O₄ material was characterized by Thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a vibrating-sample magnetometer, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, Dynamic light scattering, and Scanning electron microscopy. Biodiesel was synthesized by transesterification of Pongamia pinnata raw oil with 1:12 oil to methanol molar ratio and 2 wt% catalyst loading for 2 h at a temperature of 65℃ and yields were compared. The reusability of the catalyst was studied by the transesterification of the raw oil and its catalytic activity was found to be retained up to 7 cycles with a yield of 98%.