The Kinetic Study of Transesterification Reaction for Biodiesel Production Catalyzed by CaO Derived from Eggshells

Abstract

The kinetics study of transesterification reaction for biodiesel production catalyzed by CaO derived from eggshells as a solid heterogeneous catalyst compared with NaOH as a homogeneous catalyst was investigated. The results showed that eggshells as calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) phase had no activity to transform palm oil to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), while CaO of eggshells displayed highly active catalyst for biodiesel production. Nevertheless, the rate constant of the reaction (k) catalyzed by CaO obtained from eggshells (1.22 x 10^-2 min^-1) was lower than k value of NaOH catalyst (2.65 x 10^-1 min^-1) approximately 22 times. Although, CaO of eggshells demonstrated lower catalytic performance than NaOH, they were also advantages than NaOH catalyst such green, low-cost, non-toxicity and reused several times. Furthermore, the comparison catalytic activity of CaO catalyst derived from natural waste materials namely river snail shells, cockel shells and golden apple snail shells versus eggshells derived CaO catalyst was also investigated in this study. All of the results was not only usage as database to develop biodiesel production, but it also illustrated the benefits of waste eggshells and natural waste sources as a material precursor for preparing green catalyst to produce biodiesel product.