Abstract
The calcium methoxide was synthesized as catalyst from quick lime for biodiesel production of Pongamia pinnata (P. pinnata) oil. The catalyst was further characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflection fourier transform (ATR-FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopies (EDX) and BET surface area analysis to evaluate its performance. The parameters affecting the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content such as catalyst concentration, methanol to oil molar ratio and reaction time were investigated. Under optimized reaction condition, the FAME yield at 93.94 % was achieved within 3 h using 3 % wt catalyst concentration, 15:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 65 °C reaction temperature and 750 rpm stirring rate. The result of FAME suggested that calcium methoxide catalyst has promising viability in transesterification for biodiesel production.
Published Version
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