The development of fly ash-supported CaO derived from mollusk shell of Anadara granosa and Paphia undulata as heterogeneous CaO catalyst in biodiesel synthesis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop fly ash-supported CaO catalyst derived from waste mollusk shell of Anadara granosa and Paphia undulata for transesterification of palm oil to yield biodiesel. The active precursor Ca(OH)2 of the catalyst has been developed from calcination of waste mollusk shell, while the mesoporous has been prepared using the wet impregnation method. The results demonstrated that the mollusk shell-derived catalyst could gain the yield of biodiesel of 92 and 94 % for A. granosa shell and P. undulata shell, respectively. The obtained yield was comparable with the yield of biodiesel gained from CaO catalyst derived from reagent grade CaCO3 (yield = 94 %). The optimum condition was achieved at catalyst loading of 6 %, reaction temperature of 60 °C and reaction time of 2 h. The reusability study showed that the developed catalysts exhibited higher recycle degree characteristic indicated by 50 % yield reduction after three reuse cycles.