Heterogeneously catalyzed palm biodiesel production in intensified fruit blender

Abstract

This research investigated palm biodiesel production via solid base-catalyzed transesterification in an intensified kitchen fruit blender. Studied parameters included methanol to palm oil molar ratio, CaO catalyst loading, reaction temperature, and reaction volume. XRD analysis showed a pure CaO phase after calcination while other characteristics illustrated good functionality of the catalyst. An optimal condition was achieved with 15:1 of methanol to palm oil molar ratio, 5 wt% of CaO dosage, 60 °C of reaction temperature, and 1,000 mL of reaction volume, obtaining the highest FAME production of 97.58% and yield efficiency of 1.47 × 10−3 g/J. The FT-IR illustrated an alteration of various functional groups through a reusability experiment demonstrating exceptional activity stability. The catalyst activity was decreased by only 15.8% in the 5th consecutive cycle. Properties of produced biodiesel conformed to international standards. This proved that biodiesel production using the CaO catalyst in the intensified kitchen fruit blender provides a positive effect on reuse, reduces wastewater from the washing process, lowers production costs, and is environmentally responsible to achieve high FAME yield due to the cavitation phenomena inside the reactor to generate fine emulsion of oil and methanol which could be easier to reach the active site of the CaO catalyst.