Biodiesel synthesis from waste canarium schweinfurtii oil (WCSO) catalyzed by thermal reinforced clay and its kinetics evaluation

Abstract

The synthesis of biodiesel from waste local materials and kinetics of heterogeneous catalyzed transesterification was carried out. The local materials used were waste canarium schweinfurtii oil (WCSO) and clay. The oil was extracted from the seeds by solvent extraction method and characterized using American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM 02). The clay was reinforced thermally by heating it in a muffle furnace at a temperature of 700 °C and characterized using instrumental analysis to identify its catalytic properties. The kinetic investigation of the heterogeneous catalyzed transesterification of WCSO was done using Eley-Rideal (ER) mechanism. The results revealed that WCSO is a potential feedstock for biodiesel production with oil yield of 50.11 % and its physiochemical properties were suitable for heterogeneous catalysis. The thermally reinforced clay exhibited catalytic properties required for conversion of WCSO triglyceride to biodiesel with 85.3 % yield of 85.3 %. The experimental data well fitted to ER kinetic model with 95 % level of significance. The rate controlling step for reaction was surface reaction between adsorbed triglyceride and non-adsorbed methanol with lower activation energy of 4.53 kJ/mol for forward reaction. Hence, it is economical to produce biodiesel from waste canarium schweinfurtii oil via transesterification reaction catalyzed by thermally reinforced clay.