Potassium Based Calcium Oxide Catalyst Synthesis for Efficient Transesterification of Waste Cooking Oil /

Abstract

Waste cooking oil conversion to biodiesel is indeed an efficient and environment-friendly way to overcome environmental pollution and energy crisis owing to nontoxic nature of Biodiesel synthesized by Heterogeneous Catalyst (K-CaO). Utilization of waste cooking oil participates both in reducing the overall greenhouse gas emissions to minimum level and further in obtaining economical biodiesel. During synthesis, the crushed waste eggshells were calcined in muffle furnace at 950oC, for 3 hours. CaO were impregnated with Potassium i.e K-(CaO) for transesterification. The catalyzed reaction was proven to be most efficient with molar ratio of 12:1 and temperature 60oC in the presence of 7% catalyst. The biodiesel yield from transesterification was approximately 92% of Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) produced in an hour. Furthermore, the catalytic activity in transesterification of waste cooking oil and its physicochemical properties were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Hence production of the biodiesel from waste cooking oil was proven worthy aided by catalyst K-(CaO) synthesized using waste eggshells.