Biodiesel production from quinary oil mixture using highly efficient Musa chinensis based heterogeneous catalyst

Abstract

In this study, efficient solid catalysts from the post-harvest Musa chinensis peel, trunk and rhizome were prepared and applied effectively for the production of biodiesel from the quinary oil mixture (soybean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, jatropha oil and pongamia oil). Catalyst characterization exhibited a highly basic character with the micro-mesoporous and polycrystalline nature of the material. This work investigated the effect of catalyst load, different catalysts from different parts of the plant, MRMO (molar ratio of methanol to oil) and temperature on the reaction. The calcined M. chinensis peel catalyst was found to be the best with 44.15 wt% of K occurring as its carbonate and oxide, which successfully yielded 95.82 % biodiesel at optimized conditions of 5 wt% catalyst amount and 9:1 MRMO at temperature of 65 °C in 11 min. The highest basicity was observed in calcined peel catalyst (0.93 mmol g−1) in comparison to that of trunk (0.15 mmol g−1) and rhizome catalysts (0.2 mmol g−1). This study also displayed a turnover frequency of 16.85 h−1 (peel), 7.025 h−1 (trunk) and 2.317 h−1 (rhizome). The activation energy of the quinary oil mixture-based biodiesel synthesis with the peel catalyst was 53.625 kJ mol−1. In this work, the catalyst was found to be highly effective, reusable and produced good quality biodiesel that conforms to the international standards, and thus, it may be considered a potential renewable catalyst for biodiesel industries.