Preparation and characterizaton of CaO nanoparticle for biodiesel production

Abstract

Nanoparticle of CaO from calcium Nitrate (CaO/CaN) and Snail shell (CaO/SS) are successfully synthesized by method as described in the literature and used as an active and stable catalyst for the biodiesel production. These catalysts are characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The average crystalline size in nanometer was also calculated by Debye–Scherrer equation. The performance of the CaO/CaN and CaO/SS were tested for their catalytic activity via transesterification process and it was found that biodiesel yield has been increased from 93 to 96%. The optimum conditions for the highest yield were 8wt% catalyst loading, 65°C temperature, 12:1 methanol/oil molar ratio, and 6 h for reaction time. The nano catalyst from snail shell exhibits excellent catalytic activity and stability for the transesterification reaction, which suggested that this catalyst would be potentially used as a solid base nano catalyst for biodiesel production. In order to examine the reusability of catalyst developed from snail shell, five transesterification reaction cycles were also performed.