Application of Calcined Oysters Waste Shell as an Effective Low-Cost Heterogeneous Catalyst for Biodiesel Synthesis

Biodiesel production via transesterification of palm olein oil with methanol using solid oxide catalyst derived from waste shell of Oyster (Saccostrea commercialis) was employed in this work. The Oyster shell was found to be the rich sources of calcium carbonate and transformed to CaO catalyst after calcinations at 900oC and activation at 600oC. The effect of the molar ratio of methanol to oil between 6:1 – 15:1, catalyst amount between 2-30 wt.%, and reaction time between 0.5-10 h were optimized for the transesterification at 65oC. Biodiesel production above 90% was achieved when carried out the transesterification by employing approximately 20 wt.% catalyst and 12:1 methanol to oil molar ratio at the reaction time of 5 h. The applicability of the present study that utilizes waste resources as catalyst in the production of a green biodiesel and the results indicate that the combusted oyster waste shell at high temperature can be used as economic catalyst for the biodiesel production.