Waste Cockle Shell as Natural Catalyst for Biodiesel Production from Jatropha Oil

Due to the increasing of industrialization and modernization of the world, the demand of petroleum has risen rapidly. The increasing demand for energy and environmental awareness has prompted many researches to embark on alternative fuel platforms that are environmentally acceptable. In this study, jatropha oil was used to produce biodiesel by a new transesterification routine in which cockle shell was used as source of heterogeneous catalyst. The investigation showed the catalyst that was calcined at temperature of 800 degrees C has the optimum capability to produce high yield. The highest yield of biodiesel production of 93.20 % were obtained by using 1.5 wt% of catalyst. The reaction was conducted at a temperature of 65 degrees C with the optimum methanol to oil ratio of 6:1. It was found that the physical properties of the biodiesel produced were significant to ASTM standard of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).