Effect of barium loading on CaO derived from waste egg shell heterogeneous catalyst for canola oil biodiesel

Petroleum Technology Department, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, Songkhla, Thailand

^* Corresponding author: Alekjakkrapong@gmail.com

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the catalytic activity of Ba loading on calcium oxide (CaO) catalyst by varying the amount of barium added during the synthesis: 5-15 wt%. The waste egg shells were utilized as a CaO heterogeneous catalyst by calcined at 900 °C for 2 h. The Ba/CaO catalysts were prepared by impregnation method and were used as a catalyst in transesterification reaction of canola oil via microwave irradiation under microwave power 300 W. The characterization of catalyst and FAME composition of biodiesel were determined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and gas chromatography (GC-FID). The conditions of biodiesel production were operated at 60 °C, 3 wt% of catalyst loading, 9:1 methanol-to-canola oil ratio, and microwave irradiation power was 300W for 2 min. The experimental results found that, the waste egg shells consist mainly of CaCO3, which was decomposed to CaO more than 88 wt% after cacination step. The 15 wt% Ba/CaO catalysts exhibited the best catalytic performance with the FAME conversion higher than 97.68%.