Waste Balanites aegyptiaca seed oil as a potential source for biodiesel production in the presence of a novel mixed metallic oxide catalyst

The current research work reports the synthesis of highly efficient heterogeneous barium oxide with molybdenum oxide (BaO-MoO₂) catalysts for transesterification of Balanites aegyptiaca seed oil for biodiesel production. The synthesized catalysts are being characterized through several analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) to examine its suitability for biodiesel production. The biodiesel production process was optimized and optimum yield obtained was 97.8% using a set of optimum conditions such as methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 12, the processing time of 120 minutes, process temperature of 65°C and with catalyst loading of 4.5 wt%. Moreover, catalyst reusability was determined and it was found to be highly suitable for reuse with minimum loss of its activity. Further on, quality of the produced biodiesel was evaluated to show its suitability as fuel and its potential as an alternative to fossil diesel.