Biodiesel production from waste sources as heterogeneous solid base catalyst in palm oil / Fatein Mohd Daud

Biodiesel has caught the public interest as a sustainable fuel and usually produced from vegetable oils by transesterification reaction using catalyst. Solid oxide catalyst derived from industrial waste shells of egg and waste shells of crab were used as catalyst in biodiesel production. Their catalytic activity as double sources catalyst for trasesterification of palm oil were investigated based on the different loading amount of combined catalyst and also the reusability of the catalyst. The waste shells were calcined with temperature of 900°C, for 2 hours to transformed calcium species in the shells into active CaO catalyst. The experimental results showed the highest percent yield of FAME obtained is 62.8% from the optimum amount of catalyst used, 3.0 g in 10 g of oil in the transesterification reactions with methanol to oil ratio 12: 1, reaction temperatures 65 °C and reaction times 2 hours. The spent catalysts that give highest percent yields can be reused for two times. These showed that abundant waste shells have potential to be used as catalyst in biodiesel production.