Heterogeneous carbon-based catalyst modified by alkaline earth metal oxides for biodiesel production: Parametric and kinetic study

This study reports the synthesis of dual-functional heterogeneous catalyst for valorizing the plant-based oils to produce biodiesel as a cleaner fuel to conserve the environment and meet the current energy demand. Pristine carbon as a support for the catalyst is produced from waste date seeds powder before oil extraction and modified with alkaline earth metal oxides to utilize it for transesterification to produce biodiesel. The synthesized catalyst before usage is characterized by several techniques which include XRD, SEM, EDS, BET and TPD. The catalyst characterization revealed its suitability for transesterification reaction and the process is optimized while the synthesized catalyst is used for the reaction. The optimized yield of biodiesel is 94.27 wt% when the set parameters of a temperature of 65 °C, time 90 min, methanol to oil molar ratio of 15 and catalyst loading of 4 wt%. To commercialize the catalyst, the efficiency was evaluated using oils from different sources to produce biodiesel. The kinetic study revealed that while using the synthesized heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification of non-edible oil to produce biodiesel it was not an energy-intensive process. Further on, the fuel properties were measured and compared to American ASTM and European EN standards which ensured that the produced biodiesel is of potential and that it can be commercialized. Thus, the study gave an overall complete scenario from an economical catalyst to efficient fuel production which can be advantageous in the society.