Preparation and Characterization of Calcium Oxide Heterogeneous Catalyst Derived from Guinea Fowl Egg Shell for Biodiesel Synthesis for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Sustainable development turns out to be more and more central in the last few decades, in view of the fact that valiant steps are essential to guarantee the needs of future generations. The use of renewable sources for producing energy plays an important role to achieve sustainable development. There is a need to focus on non-edible oils for biodiesel production with a view of achieving sustainability. This research was conducted for the purpose of conversion of rubber seeds oil biodiesel via a transesterification with the use of guinea fowl eggshell wastes as raw materials for the preparation of heterogeneous catalyst in the biodiesel production. Proceeding to use, the calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ) content in the waste shell was converted to calcium oxide (CaO) by calcining in a muffle furnace at high temperature of 900 for four hours. The catalytic activity of the catalyst in transesterification of RSO with methanol was evaluated, and the fuel properties of obtained biodiesel were measured. The effect of reaction time, reaction temperature, methanol/oil molar ratio, catalyst loading, agitation speed and reusability of catalyst was also investigated. The experimental result showed that 12:1 M ratio of methanol to oil, 1.5 wt.% catalyst, 64 reaction temperature, 2 hours' reaction time with speed of 250 rpm gave the best results. The CaO catalyst derived from waste calcined guinea fowl sustained a good catalytic activity even after being repeatedly used for 6 cycles with yield around 91%. The results reveal that both waste egg shell and rubber seed oil provides promising prospect for people to access cheap, reliable and clean energy in the future, which is one of the key elements to sustain healthy ecosystems and human life.