Rismawati Rasyid *, Takdir Syarif, Thahirah Arief, Syarwan Hamid, Rahmi Ayumi Thamrin

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Universitas Muslim Indonesia, Makassar, Indonesia

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ABSTRACT

This study investigates the performance of Mg(OH)2 supported on γ-Al2O3 as a heterogeneous catalyst for two distinct biofuel production routes, namely catalytic cracking and transesterification of used cooking oil. The catalyst was prepared by impregnation with Mg(OH)2 loadings of 1–4 wt.% and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis. Structural characterization confirmed the successful dispersion of Mg(OH)2 on the γ-Al2O3 support, yielding a high surface area of 131.68 m2/g and stable crystalline phases. Catalytic performance tests revealed that a 2 wt.% Mg(OH)2/γ-Al2O3 catalyst achieved the highest yields in both processes, reaching 44% for catalytic cracking and 30% for transesterification. Product selectivity analysis showed that transesterification favored biogasoline-range hydrocarbons (C5–C11) with a maximum selectivity of 94.11%, whereas catalytic cracking preferentially produced biodiesel-range fractions (C16–C22) with a selectivity of 52.89%. These results demonstrate that Mg(OH)2/γ-Al2O3 functions as a dual-purpose catalyst, where the balance between basic active sites and the γ-Al2O3 support governs reaction pathways and selectivity. The findings provide insight into the design of multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for sustainable biofuel production.


Keywords: Biofuel, Catalyst, Catalytic cracking, Transesterification, Used cooking oil.


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ARTICLE INFORMATION

Received: 2025-11-02
Revised: 2025-12-27
Accepted: 2026-01-12
Available Online: 2026-03-03


Cite this article:

Rismawati, R., Takdir, S., Arief, T., Hamid, S., Rahmi, A.T., 2026. Evaluation of Mg(OH)2 supported γ-Al2O3 in catalytic cracking and transesterification. International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 23, 2025278. https://doi.org/10.6703/IJASE.202606_23(2).001

  Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

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