INVESTIGATION OF THE POTENTIAL OF WASTE BONES AS A CATALYST IN BIOFUEL PRODUCTION

Abstract

It has recently come to light that inappropriate waste management (particularly of animal bones) is a major contributor to environmental degradation on a global scale. Instead, it would be extremely beneficial to the economy if the bioeconomy civilization could find novel applications for these discards. Biodiesel’s output can be put to good use as a heterogeneous catalyst in the effective recycling of animal bone. Ca-based catalysts produced from discarded bones, have been extensively studied in the transesterification reaction due to their high catalytic activity and abundant feedstock. Calcium oxide, a common mineral, can be used to create heterogeneous catalysts (in the form of discarded bones). However, process improvements are required to make calcium oxide-based catalysts suitable for industrial use. This research summarizes the sources of waste animal bones, provides context for the recent advances in the development of various Ca-based catalysts derived from waste animal bones, characterized a calcium oxide-based catalyst derived from waste animal bones, and details its application in biodiesel production. In this work, waste bones were modified by calcination at 9500C for 3h. The catalyst was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for its morphological structure, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), for its functional group, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), for its elemental composition, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), for thermal stability and Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) surface area analysis. Overall, raw sample was found to have no effect on the waste bone, while high temperature calcination greatly affected the pore size, surface area, composition, and thermal decomposition profile of the waste bone sample. According to the study’s findings, used animal bones can be used to create catalysts that are appropriate for trans-esterifying a variety of oil sources into high-quality biodiesel. This increases the total energy and atom-efficiency of both conventional and new chemical processes while also making the system more cost-effective and ecologically benign. This discovery will encourage scientists to look into possible wastes of bones and pave the way for a more cost-effective and ecologically friendly way to make biodiesel and should also continue to be evaluated for the likelihood of their use in the commercial sector.