The utilization of waste egg and cockle shell as catalysts for biodiesel production from food processing waste oil using stirring and ultrasonic agitation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe use of calcined egg and cockle shell as heterogeneous solid catalysts for a transesterification reaction to produce biodiesel from food processing waste has been investigated in this work. The CaO catalysts were obtained from the calcination of egg and cockle shell and were characterized by surface analysis, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experiments employed stirring and ultrasonic agitation, which proved to be a time-efficient approach for biodiesel production from food processing waste oil. A response surface methodology (RSM) was used to evaluate the effects of the process variables methanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, and reaction time on biodiesel production. The optimal % fatty acid methyl ester values obtained when using egg and cockle shells as catalysts were found to be 94.7% and 94.4% when the methanol to oil molar ratios were 9.3:1 and 8.5:1, egg and cockle shell catalyst mass fraction percentages were 3.8% and 3.5%, and reaction times were 47 and 44 min, respectively. The study has shown that ultrasonic agitation might be employed in a practical pilot reactor for biodiesel production.