Abstract
The present work incorporates the synthesis of a multifunctional catalyst for the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel and recovery of rare earth elements (REEs). For this purpose, TiO2 nanoparticles and TiO2 doped with lithium ions were prepared. The influence of lithium ions on the catalytic performance of TiO2 was attained by impregnation of the different molar ratios of lithium hydroxide to bare TiO2. Then each catalyst was screened for catalytic conversion of WCO to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and also for REEs recovery. All synthesized materials were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, and Hammett indicator for the basicity test. The obtained biodiesel was characterized by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), 1H, and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Moreover, the physical parameters of the synthesized biodiesel were also determined. The REEs recovery efficiency of synthesized nanomaterials was investigated, and the percentage of REEs removal was determined by inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).
Highlights
The rise in population results in the diminution of fossil fuels, and environmental pollution leads to the requirement for an alternative fuel [1,2]
The unmodified TiO2 X-ray diffraction spectra show an excellent match to standard reference code ICDD: 98-015-4607, anatase titania [2]
TiO2-0.5Li and TiO2 -0.75Li showed a good match to standard reference code ICSD: 84713, ICDD: 98-008-4713, lithium titanium oxide (0.74/3/6)
Summary
The rise in population results in the diminution of fossil fuels, and environmental pollution leads to the requirement for an alternative fuel [1,2]. The advancement in technology and the growing population result in the accumulation of waste containing rare earth elements (REEs) [3,4,5]. The recycling of REEs and the replacement of conventional fuels with renewable energy are significant parts of sustainability, to meet the increasing demand for rare earth elements and fuels, and to reduce the health problems and pollution due to REEs deposition and fossil fuel consumption respectively [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The waste cooking oil was used for the production of high-quality biodiesel due to its cost-effective nature and did not compete with the food market [1,2,8]
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