Biodiesel Production from Mixed Elengi and Pongamia Oil using Calcined Waste Animal Bone as a Novel Heterogeneous Catalyst

Abstract

Recently, researchers have shown more interest towards biodiesel production from non-edible vegetable oils. The main advantages of biodiesel as a fuel includes biodegradability, non-toxicity, renewability and low emission profiles. In this study, crude mixed oil was used as feedstock for biodiesel production using Heterogeneous Catalyst synthesized from waste animal bone. Initially, mechanical extraction process was used to extract the crude mixed oil from the seeds of Mimusops elengi, and Pongamia pinnata. The crude oil collected from different plant species was characterized using GC-MS spectral data to identify their fatty acid composition. Consequently, the mixed crude oil was converted into biodiesel in the presence of calcinated heterogeneous catalyst obtained from waste animal bone and the catalyst was characterized by SEM, XRD and FTIR spectral data. The effect of variables including methanol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, reaction time and rate of mixing on the biodiesel yield was evaluated and optimized. The characteristics biodiesel obtained from mixed oil were close to commercial diesel fuel and used as an alternative to diesel in near future.