Abstract
The present study investigated honne oil methyl esters (HOME) production from crude honne seed oil (HSO) using a novel catalyst synthesized from a blend of cocoa pod husk and plantain peel. A two-step esterification-transesterification method was used for the HOME production. For the esterification, the crude HSO was pretreated with H2SO4 to reduce its very high acid value to an acceptable level prior to transesterification to biodiesel. Characterization of the calcined cocoa pod husk-plantain peel ash (CCPA) showed that K (50.95%), Mg (2.49%) and Ca (2.30%) were the major metals present, thereby confirming its heterogeneity. Physisorption isotherms obtained for the CCPA indicate it is composed of nanoparticles that are mesoporous in nature. The initial high acid value of the oil (35.5 g KOH/g oil) was reduced to 1.68 ± 0.57 g KOH/g oil via esterification at a temperature of 65 °C, MeOH:HSO molar ratio of 50:1 and H2SO4 of 2 vol% after 2.5 h. The best operating condition that gave maximum HOME yield (98.98 ± 0.04 wt%) was CCPA amount of 4.5 wt%, reaction temperature of 65 °C, time of 2.5 h and MeOH:pretreated HSO molar ratio of 15:1. The HOME produced satisfied standard limits set for biodiesel.
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