Development of heterogeneous alkali catalyst from waste chicken eggshell for biodiesel production

In this research work, heterogeneous alkali catalyst was derived from low-cost chicken eggshell waste. Among the catalyst synthesis route, calcinations method was used to decompose the calcium carbonate present in the waste. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by TGA/DTA, powder XRD, XRF, FT-IR, and SEM analytical instrument. In an effort to optimize the reaction condition of biodiesel production from soybean oil, a response surface methodology-Box-Behnken method was used. The maximum biodiesel yield of 93% and 92.32%; experimental and predicted respectively was obtained at a reaction temperature of 57.5 degrees C, reaction time of 3 h, methanol to oil molar ratio of 10:1, catalyst concentration of 7 wt%. The experiment was carried out in the three-necked batch-glass reactor at atmospheric pressure. Finally, the fuel properties of obtained biodiesel were measured and were all in the standard range. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.