An Approach for Biodiesel Production from Blends of Azadirachta indica and Simarouba glauca Triglycerides by Graphene-Doped Calcium Oxide Catalyst and Its Comparative Studies

Abstract

Over the past several decades, people from many nations have adopted and supported using biodiesel energy sources due to their accessibility and advantages in reducing CO2 and H.C. emissions to the environment. Today, biodiesel is recognized as a sustainable alternative energy source. Commercially, biodiesel was produced by converting homogenous oil treated with a catalyst like NaOH or KOH in Alcohol. These homogeneous catalysts are hazardous to the environment and cannot be recycled. As an alternative, this research article focuses on biodiesel production from a 1:1 blend of Simarubha glauca (Laxmitharu in Kannada) and Azadirachta indica (Neem) triglyceride via acid-base catalyzed transesterification reaction. The heterogeneous-based graphene-doped CaO was used as a catalyst obtained through the calcination method by doping it with graphene oxide by the hummers’ method. SEM, FTIR, and XRD were used to characterize the GaO-CaO catalyst. The results predict that the prepared catalyst yielded a high percentage of ASFAME (94.0%) and meets the quality as per ASTM standards 6751D.