Microwave assisted transesterification of biodiesel from waste cooking oil using CaO extracted from green mussel shell waste and limestone as catalyst

Abstract

Biodiesel is a well-known substitution of diesel oil in the transportation sector. Crude palm oil is mostly used as raw material to produce biodiesel. However, the price of crude palm oil is fluctuate that cause high cost of biodiesel production. Contrarily, restaurants produce abundance waste cooking oil and has cheaper price than crude palm oil. The objective of this study is to synthesized biodiesel from waste cooking oil by microwave assisted esterification with low reaction power using CaO catalyst that derived from green mussel shell waste and limestone (1:1 w/w) as heterogeneous catalyst to assist the transesterification process. The experimental results indicated that waste cooking oil have the potential to be raw material of biodiesel. The best performance esterification is 0, 0241 mg NaOH/g of acid value obtained at a reaction time of 15 minute at microwave power of 400 W. The highest biodiesel yield (83, 89%) was found by oil methanol ratio of 1:12 at microwave power of 400 W and reaction time of 15 minute.