Fe3O4 nanoparticles impregnated eggshell as a novel catalyst for enhanced biodiesel production

Biodiesel is a green fuel which can replace diesel while addressing various issues such as scarcity of hydrocarbon fuels and environmental pollution to an extent. The high production cost of biodiesel and the recovery of the catalyst after the transesterification process are the major challenges to be addressed in biodiesel production. In the present work, a cheap and promising solid base oxide catalyst was synthesized from chicken eggshell by calcination at 900 degrees C forming catalyst eggshells (CES) and was impregnated with the nanomagnetic material (Fe3O4) to obtain Fe3O4 loaded catalytic eggshell (CES-Fe3O4 ). Fe3O4 nanomaterials were synthesized by co-precipitation method and were loaded in catalytic eggshell by sonication, for better recovery of the catalyst after transesterification process. CES-Fe3O4 material was characterized by Thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a vibrating-sample magnetometer, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, Dynamic light scattering, and Scanning electron microscopy. Biodiesel was synthesized by transesterification of Pongamia pinnata raw oil with 1:12 oil to methanol molar ratio and 2 wt% catalyst loading for 2 h at a temperature of 65 degrees C . and yields were compared. The reusability of the catalyst was studied by the transesterification of the raw oil and its catalytic activity was found to be retained up to 7 cycles with a yield of 98%. (C) 2019 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.