Potential Use of Chicken Egg Shells and Cacao Pod Husk as Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

Chicken eggshells and cacao pod husk are known as waste materials that can be used to produce catalyst of CaO and K2CO3, respectively. Waste cooking oil (WCO) is an alternative raw material to produce economical and cheaper biodiesel. WCO first undergoes a pre-treatment process that aims to remove free fatty acid (FFA). Biodiesel was produced by transesterification between triglyceride and alcohol with the presence of a catalyst. To obtain the catalyst, eggshell was calcined in a furnace at temperatures of 600 degrees C, 700 degrees C, 800 degrees C, and 900 degrees C for 6 hours. On the other hand, K2CO3 catalyst synthesis was carried out by carbonization cacao pod husk at temperature of 650 degrees C and subsequently extracted using aquadest solvent. Catalysts were then characterized by XRD and FTIR. The biodiesel synthesis in this research was conducted at 65 degrees C with molar ratio of 1: 6 WCO to methanol, reaction time for 1 and 2 hours, for K2CO3 and CaO, respectively. The optimum condition for the reaction using CaO was obtained for CaO that carbonized at 900 degrees C. It produced 81.43% conversion of biodiesel. On the other hand, reaction using K2CO3 could reach a higher conversion of 85%. From the results it was clear that the biodiesel fuel production was within the recommended SNI 7182: 2015 standard.