Biodiesel Synthesis from Waste Vegetable Oil Utilizing Eggshell Ash as an Innovative Heterogenous Catalyst
Favour Okechi Ifeanyi-Nze, Omiyale Olumakinde Charles, Innocent Ugochukwu Okonkwo, C.J. Chukwu, Chidimma Maryjane Nwankwor, Adebola Olatunde Onabanjo, Sarah Onyabakpa Adoga, Johnson Obasi Chukwu, Kenechukwu Fortunate Chukwurah, Marcus Ebikemiyen, Godstime Uduak Okon, Olaoluwa John Adeleke, Kazeem Arowosaye Tajudeen
Abstract
The objective of this research is to explore the production of biodiesel using Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) as the primary feedstock and calcined eggshell ash as an environmentally sustainable catalyst. The WVO, characterized by a Free Fatty Acid (FFA) content of 2.86%, serves as the primary feedstock for biodiesel production through transesterification. The eggshell ash undergoes a rigorous process, including washing with distilled water to remove impurities, drying at 100ºC for 24 hours, crushing into fine particles, and final calcination in a muffle furnace at 900ºC. Process optimization is achieved by varying key reaction parameters, including temperature, catalyst loading, and the methanol-oil molar ratio. The optimal conditions are identified at 65°C, utilizing a methanol-oil molar ratio of 6:1 and a 5wt% catalyst loading. Under these optimized reaction conditions, a substantial biodiesel yield of 91.3% is obtained. The produced biodiesel meets the stringent quality requirements specified by the American Standard (ASTM D 6751) and European Standard (EN 14214) for biodiesel fuel, ensuring its suitability for various applications. This study demonstrates the potential of utilizing calcined eggshell ash as an eco-friendly catalyst for sustainable biodiesel production from WVO. Received: 20 September 2023 | Revised: 1 November 2023 | Accepted: 13 November 2023 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. Author Contribution Statement Favour Okechi Ifeanyi-Nze: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration; Charles Olumakinde Omiyale: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing - review & editing; Innocent Ugochukwu Okonkwo: Formal analysis, Investigation; Chinemerem Jerry Chukwu: Methodology, Visualization; Chidimma Maryjane Nwankwor: Writing - original draft; Adebola Olatunde Onabanjo: Data curation; Sarah Onyabakpa Adoga: Project administration; Johnson Obasi Chukwu: Supervision; Kenechukwu Fortunate Chukwurah: Writing - review & editing, Project administration; Marcus Ebikemiyen: Investigation; Godstime Uduak Okon: Resources; Olaoluwa John Adeleke: Data curation; Kazeem Arowosaye Tajudeen: Validation.