This work aimed to determine and compare the apparent activation energy, involved in thermal decomposition of CTMA+ from the pores of Ti-MCM-41 synthesized by two different source of silica in order to evaluate their influence in the template removal. The molecular sieves Ti-MCM-41 were synthesized using rice husk ash (RHA), as alternative low cost source of silica, and commercial silica gel, obtaining two mesoporous material by hydrothermal synthesis of gel molar composition of: 1.0 CTMABr: 4.0 SiO2: X TiO2: 1.0 Na2O: 200.0 H2O. The samples were characterized to compare its properties by X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, BET method and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The kinetic study using the model proposed by Flynn and Wall to determine the apparent activation energy for CTMA+ removal was performed using TGA data. The thermogravimetric analysis results of the material obtained from RHA confirmed intrinsic properties of mesoporous MCM-41 as the synthesized with commercial silica gel, such as high specific area, mesoporous range of pore diameter and hexagonal structure. According to the kinetics results the RHA showed similar chemical interaction to commercial silica gel, which makes it an interesting material, since it is a low cost source of natural silica from agricultural waste.

Biodiesel is a fuel renewable, biodegradable and environmentally correct fuel, which can be obtained from the esterification reactions, transesterification and pyrolisis. Montmorillonite is a clay mineral of the smectite group and are of great interest for industrial processes such as catalysis and adsorption. Acid activation of clay minerals is one of the most effective methods proposed to produce active materials. In this work, montmorillonite clay was treated with H2SO4 in different concentrations (0.2 – 0.8 mol L–1), characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and applied in the catalytic esterification of oleic acid. The results reveal that the clay treated with aqueous solutions 0.8 mol L–1 H2SO4 shows promising catalytic activity toward the studied reaction, with maximum conversion of oleic acid of 65% at 30 °C.