OPTIMIZATION OF BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM WASTE FRYING OIL OVER ALUMINA SUPPORTED CHICKEN EGGSHELL CATALYST USING EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN TOOL

Adeyinka S Yusuff,Lekan T Popoola

doi:10.14311/ap.2019.59.0088

Abstract

An optimization of the biodiesel production from a waste frying oil via a heterogeneous transesterification was studied. This present study is also aimed at investigating the catalytic ehaviour of the alumina supported eggshell (ASE) for the synthesis of biodiesel. A synthesized ASE catalyst, at various mixing ratios of alumina to eggshell, was investigated and exhibited a better activity for the reaction when the eggshell and alumina were mixed via incipient wetness impregnation in 2 : 1 proportion on a mass basis and calcined at 900 °C for 4 h. The as-synthesized catalyst was characterized by basicity, BET, SEM, EDX, and FTIR. The 2k factorial experimental design was employed for an optimization of process variables, which include catalyst loading, reaction time, methanol/oil molar ratio and reaction temperature and their effects on the biodiesel yield were studied. The optimization results showed that the reaction time has the highest percentage contribution of 40.139% while the catalyst loading contributes the least to the biodiesel production, as low as 1.233 %. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a high correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9492) and the interaction between the reaction time and reaction temperature contributes significantly to the biodiesel production process with percentage contribution of 14.001 %, compared to other interaction terms. The biodiesel yield of 77.56% was obtained under the optimized factor combination of 4.0 wt.% catalyst loading, 120 min reaction time, 12 : 1 methanol/oil molar ratio and reaction temperature of 65 °C. The reusability study showed that the ASE catalyst could be reused for up to four cycles and the biodiesel produced under optimum conditions conformed to the ASTM standard.

Highlights

Biodiesel is a biogenic, renewable, non-toxic and esterderived oxygenated fuel
Two ways in which this problem could be addressed according to Fabbri et al [2] and Taufiq-yap et al [15] include a biodiesel synthesis from a waste vegetable or nonedible oil and the use of solid catalysts derived from readily available waste or naturally occurring materials instead of a homogeneous catalyst and enzyme
This is attributed to the fact that the catalyst sample contains a larger proportion of eggshell, which decomposed into CaO and CO2 after calcination [14] and amphoteric nature of Al2O3

Summary

Introduction

It is commonly produced from animal fat, edible (soybean, palm, coconut, corn) oil, non-edible (cotton seed, Jatropha curcas, algae, sunflower) oil and waste vegetable oil. According to Tan et al [14], biodiesel can conveniently be used to power a diesel engine without making any adjustment to the engine. It is energy efficient, environmentally friendly and reduces the greenhouse gases emission [15]. Two ways in which this problem could be addressed according to Fabbri et al [2] and Taufiq-yap et al [15] include a biodiesel synthesis from a waste vegetable or nonedible oil and the use of solid catalysts derived from readily available waste or naturally occurring materials instead of a homogeneous catalyst and enzyme

Methods

Results

Conclusion