EXTRACTION AND TRANSESTERIFICATION OF OIL FROM PALM KERNEL CATALYSED BY 10%H2SO4 AND 10%NaOH MODIFIED CLAY MATERIALS

Abstract

Biodiesel production has gained prominence owing to the menace of climate change believed to be caused majorly by fossil fuel combustion. The heterogeneous transesterification option is regularly employed considering its enormous advantages. This research sampled abundant and locally available and renewable materials; palm kernel (for extraction of oil) and clay (employed as a catalyst). The clay was calcined at 400 oC, modified using 10 % by weight H2SO4 and NaOH respectively, characterised by BET and X-ray diffraction and then used for transesterification with the extracted palm kernel oil to produce biodiesel in a 1: 9 oil to methanol ratio and 10 % catalyst dosage of the acid (H2SO4) and alkali (NaOH) modified clay respectively. The results show biodiesel yields of 66.67 % and 73.33 % respectively. The physicochemical characterisation of the biodiesels obtained had values that conformed with ATSM values for good biodiesel, while their GC-MS analyses confirmed the presence of many fatty acid methyl esters which are responsible for biodiesel production. X-ray diffraction and BET analyses respectively showed crystallinity and presence of some minerals with surface area (65.52 – 72.43 m2g-1), pore size (0.997 Ao) and pore volume (24.54 – 28.04 cm3/g) for the clay. These abundant environmentally friendly biofuels that are economically produced, show very good prospects of replacing fossil fuels.