Application of waste materials as a heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production from Jatropha Curcas oil via microwave irradiation

Abstract

The application of natural calcium sources from waste materials has been considered as a new trend for biodiesel production. The waste eggs and shells are found to be the richest sources of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and have been utilized for various purposes after proper treatments. In this study, the waste quail eggshell and crab shell were used as the raw materials for calcium oxide (CaO) catalysts. The calcination of waste material was conducted at 900 °C for 2 h. The raw material and the resulting CaO catalyst were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The effects of reaction variables such as reaction time, microwave power, methanol/oil molar ratio, and catalyst loading on the yield of biodiesel were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The optimum conditions, which yielded a conversion of oil of nearly 94%, were reaction time 5 min, microwave power 800 W, methanol/oil molar ratio 18:1, and catalyst loading 4 wt%. From the experimental results, it was found that the CaO catalysts derived from waste material showed good catalytic activity and had high potential to be used as biodiesel production catalysts in transesterification of Jatropha Curcas oil with methanol.