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Today, the rapid growth of population, industrial development, increasing demand for energy, fluctuations in oil price, Global warming due to greenhouse gases emission, environmental pollution and the reducing of fossil fuel reservoirs have led to search for new energy sources. Biodiesel is one of the valuable alternative sources of fossil fuels. In this work, the K compounds/Al2O3 nanostructured composite catalyst was synthesized by urea combustion sol-gel method, and used for transesterification of sunflower oil and waste cooking oil to produce biodiesel. Analysis such as XRF, ICP, XRD, SEM, FTIR, ASAP and TGA were used for the characterization of the synthesized catalysts. FESEM images showed that the catalyst had a porous structure. XRD analysis showed the amorph structure of the catalyst. Specific surface area and pore size of synthesized catalyst was determind by ASAP analysis. GC-mass analysis of biodiesel production, confirmed the formation of methyl esters. The effects of operation conditions such as methanol to oil molar ratio, the amount of catalyst, reaction temperature and time were investigated and optimized using the DX-11 design expert software. The optimum operating conditions were determined for biodiesel production: methanol to oil molar ratio of 17:1, catalyst amount of 8.25 Wt.%, reaction temperature of 70˚C and reaction time of 7 h. In these conditions, the biodiesel yield was 88.74% for sunflower oil and 82.01% for waste cooking oil. The biodiesel properties, such as density, viscosity, cloud point, pour point and cetane number were measured and compared to standards. The results of this study, showed the production of biodiesel with high yields and high quality.
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