Optimised biodiesel production from waste vegetable cooking oil catalysed by green synthesised calcium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

The current study proposes a simple, cost-effective and environmentally friendly technique for producing biodiesel via transesterification of waste vegetable cooking oil using green synthesised CaO nanoparticles, as a catalyst. The produced CaO nanoparticles were structurally and morphologically analysed using several characterisation techniques. The qualitative analysis of produced biodiesel was carried out by using different analytical techniques recommended by the American Society for Testing Materials, such as the acid number test, methanol test, and copper strip corrosion test, and FTIR spectroscopy. The optimised parameters for maximum biodiesel yield (96%) were determined to be a 1% catalyst loading, 1:8 oil to ethanol ratio, a temperature of 50°C, and reaction duration of 90 minutes. The prepared CaO nanocatalyst has a high surface area to volume ratio, small average size of 32.4 nm and high crystalline structure which gave rise to their potent catalytic properties.