Catalytic activity of precipitated calcium carbonate for biodiesel production

Abstract

Transesterification of used cooking oil (UCO) with methanol using calcium carbonate precipitate (PCC) as a heterogeneous catalyst was carried out under reflux with constant stirring to obtain biodiesel. Before the catalyst test, PCC was first thermally activated at 900 °C for 5 hours to obtain CaO. and then characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The effects of temperature, reaction time, methanol/oil molar ratio and amount of catalyst were investigated. The highest yield of biodiesel produced was 93% after 4 hours reaction time using 5%wt catalyst and methanol to oil ratio 6:1. In addition, the catalyst has good reuse potential for the synthesis of biodiesel.