Transesterification of non-edible oil and effects of process parameters on biodiesel yield

Abstract

Because of its many advantages over petro-diesel, biodiesel is being promoted as a sustainable fuel option. Nonetheless, its economic viability is hampered by the high manufacturing costs associated with it, mainly because of the excessively high cost of commonly-used cooking oils as raw materials and the synthetic calcium oxide used as a catalyst. The cost barriers to biodiesel production can be alleviated through the exploration of non-edible oils as raw materials and the use of waste resources. This work contributes to the development of a catalyst from waste bone for biodiesel synthesis from neemseed oil. The discarded bones were via thermal method calcined at 800 0 C, and impregnation methods using alkaline (NaOH) impregnation at a 1:6 ratio and an acid (H 3 PO 4 ) impregnation at a 1:4 ratio. Performance parameters were optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM), and the observed optimal conditions were catalyst concentration 4 wt%, methanol to oil ratio 8:1, reaction temperature 55 O C, reaction time 4 h, and agitation speed 400 rpm. Maximum yields were achieved with a 94% acid catalyst, 93% alkaline catalyst, and 92% thermal catalyst for transesterification. Under ideal conditions, the fuel characteristics of neem oil methyl esters were found to be well within the range recommended by ASTM D6751 for biodiesel. Therefore, the waste-bone catalysts produced for transesterification of neem seed oil towards biodiesel generation can be deemed an effective and active catalyst. The study's results suggest that non-edible neem seed oil could be a good choice for the industrial-scale manufacturing of biodiesel, which could eventually displace petro-diesel. • This paper focused on the production of biodiesel using acid, base and thermal activated catalyst from neem oil • This study shows that biodiesel production from neem oil is economically viable. • The catalyst showed good catalytic performance. • The study showed that acid activated catalyst has the highest yield and showed better performance