Biodiesel Production from Sapindus Trifoliatus oil using Mg doped CaO Heterogeneous Nanocatalyst

Abstract

ABSTRACT Biodiesel has gained increasing attention worldwide as an alternate source of energy that directly replaces fuels from fossil fuels. In this study, the transesterification process is reported using the heterogeneous nanocatalyst Mg-doped CaO for biodiesel production from Sapindus trifoliatus oil. The characterization methods such as FT-IR, XRD, and SEM were used to characterize the synthesized Mg-doped CaO catalyst. Both experimental and conventional methods were adopted to optimize the process parameters in biodiesel production. A maximum biodiesel conversion of 91.75% was obtained under the optimized conditions of temperature 58°C for a time of 73 min with 4% (w/w) catalyst concentration and 15:1 methanol:oil molar ratio. The low reaction temperature and time helped to develop the economically feasible process. For three cycles, the synthesized nanocatalyst was reused efficiently. The biodiesel methyl ester function groups were determined by GC-FID. The biodiesel physicochemical properties were also analyzed and compared with the ASTM standards.