Solid acid catalysts are of increasing importance for esterification in the production of bulk and fine chemicals. The use of solid catalysts offers an alternative to mineral acids and has received a lot of attention in the past years. Esterification of simple aliphatic and aromatic acids using various solid acid catalysts like the resins, zeolites, heteropoly acids like tungstophosphoric acid and its amine salts and superacids like sulfated zirconia and niobium acid, only a few reports can be seen on the esterification of fatty acids. These catalysts have low densities of effective acid sites and thus cannot achieve adequate performance in acid-catalyzed reactions in the presence of water as replacement for homogeneous Bronsted acids in esterification. Accordingly the present invention is to provide a novel glycerol-based solid heterogeneous acid catalyst useful for the esterification of fatty acids. Process for the esterification of fatty acids or fatty acid present in vegetable oils, animal fats, fatty acid distillate, acid oil and deodorizer distillate with alcohols using glycerol-based solid heterogeneous acid catalyst for the production of biodiesel.
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