Abstract
As the world's population increases, there is a rise in energy demands. Fossil fuel has been overly used to meet these demands but huge dependence on the available fossil fuels has resulted in its depletion. Fossil fuel utilization has also contributed immensely to the release of greenhouse gasses which is a major environmental concern. Hence, the motivation for sustainable energy is environmentally friendly and economically viable. Biodiesel is the ideal substitute for petro-diesel because it is biodegradable and has lower toxicity. Biodiesel has been generated from different materials but the availability of such materials as well as the existence of information on the effectiveness of the process reaction conditions for biodiesel generation from them will decide the optimum percentage yield of biodiesel from favorable parametric reaction variables. The synthesis, as well as the optimization of biodiesel from a unique material employing calcium oxide catalyst (obtained from waste product) and inorganic potassium hydroxide, were investigated in this work. Response surface methodology design tool was utilized for investigating the optimal level of each parameter with Box-Behnken design (BBD) for biodiesel production using the two catalysts. From the findings of the conducted research, the analysis of variance for biodiesel production using KOH as a catalyst revealed that the biodiesel yield was influenced significantly by the adopted variables. The experimental study carried out with reaction conditions of 6:1, 60°C and 1 wt% for the ratio of alcohol to oil, the temperature of reaction, and the catalyst weight resulted in the greatest biodiesel percentage yield of 97 percent with the biodiesel percentage output of 96.99% being presumed from the data analysis at optimum reaction condition of 6.43:1, 60.01°C and 1.19 wt% for molar ratio alcohol-to-oil, temperature, and catalyst weight. Likewise, the production of bio-based diesel by the transesterification of Parsley seed oil with methanol by employing calcium oxide catalyst derived from waste eggshells was investigated in this research as well as the effect of varying the parametric variables on the yield of biodiesel to determine the optimum reaction conditions for high biodiesel generation. Hence, the shells were calcined at 900 ᵒC for 2 h, and the catalyst was characterized by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy–dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to determine its morphology and elemental composition. The bio-based diesel production by using calcium oxide catalyst derived from waste product gave a biodiesel yield of 92.19% for the predicted data analysis as the optimum yield and optimum conditions of reaction of 9.4:1, 59.31 °C, and 2.7 wt% for the alcohol: oil molar ratio, temperature of reaction, and the weight of catalyst, respectively. The experimental results showed that at an alcohol to oil ratio of 9:1, the temperature of 60 °C and catalyst amount of 3 wt%, an optimum biodiesel yield of 95% was obtained. However, the waste eggshells calcined at 900 oC for 2 hours showed good catalytic activity in the transesterification of the PSO. In addition, the characterization of the produced biodiesel was achieved with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Likewise, the fuel characteristics of biodiesel were within the specifications of the ASTM D6751.