Soybean Oil Transesterification for Biodiesel Production with Micro-Structured Calcium Oxide (CaO) from Natural Waste Materials as a Heterogeneous Catalyst

Samuel Santos, Luís Nobre, João Gomes, Jaime Puna, Rosa Quinta-Ferreira and João Bordado
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Samuel Santos: CERENA–Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Luís Nobre: CQE–Centro de Química Estrutural, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
João Gomes: CERENA–Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Jaime Puna: CERENA–Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Rosa Quinta-Ferreira: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias, Universidade de Coimbra, R. Sílvio Lina s/n, 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal
João Bordado: CERENA–Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-10

Abstract: In this study, micro-structured calcium oxide obtained from the calcination (850 °C for 3 h) of Gallus gallus domesticus (chicken) eggshells was used as a catalyst in the transesterification of soybean oil. This catalyst was characterized by Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM) methods. The structure of the obtained CaO showed several agglomerates of white granular solids with a non-regular and unsymmetrical shape. In terms of calcium oxide catalytic activity, three different catalyst loadings (1%wt, 3%wt, and 5%wt) were tested for the same reaction conditions, resulting in transesterification yields of 77.27%wt, 84.53%wt, and 85.83%wt respectively. The results were compared to the current literature, and whilst they were lower, they were promising, allowing us to conclude that the tendency of yield improvement for this reaction, when the size range of catalyst particles is to be reduced to a nano scale, can be verified.

Keywords: biodiesel; calcium oxide; transesterification; eggshell; solid base heterogeneous catalyst; micro- and nano-structured catalysts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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