A simple method was developed for biodiesel production from non-edible Jatropha oil which contains
high free fatty acid using a bifunctional acidebase catalyst. The acidebase catalyst comprising CaO and
La2O3 mixed metal oxides with various Ca/La atomic ratios were synthesized via co-precipitation
method. The effects of Ca/La compositions on the surface area, acidityebasicity and transesterification
activity were investigated. Integrated metalemetal oxide between Ca and La enhanced the catalytic
activity due to well dispersion of CaO on composite surface and thus, increased the surface acidic and
basic sites as compared to that of bulk CaO and La2O3 metal oxide. Furthermore, the transesterification
reactions resulted that the catalytic activity of CaOeLa2O3 series were increased with Ca/La atomic ratio
to 8.0, but the stability of binary system decreased by highly saturated of CaO on the catalyst surface at
Ca/La atomic ratio of 10.0. The highest biodiesel yield (98.76%) was achieved under transesterification
condition of 160 C, 3 h, 25 methanol/oil molar ratio and 3 wt.%. In addition, the stability of CaOeLa2O3
binary system was studied. In this study, CaeLa binary system is stable even after four cycles with
negligible leaching of Ca2þ ion in the reaction medium