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Articles

Preparation and characterization of highly active solid base catalyst from snail shell for biodiesel production

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Pages 315-324 | Received 14 Sep 2015, Accepted 21 May 2016, Published online: 13 Jul 2016
 

ABSTRACT

Snail shell (SS), a good natural source of calcium carbonate, was tested as a catalyst for transesterification reaction. SS was calcined and modified with potassium hydroxide (KOH) to obtain a catalyst with high activity, and characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and thermal gravimetric analysis. Calcined SS and KOH impregnated SS (KOH/SS) were tested for their catalytic activity via transesterification process, and it was found that biodiesel yield had been increased from 90 to 96%. The optimum conditions for the highest yield were 6 wt.% catalyst loading, 65°C temperature, 9:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, and 3.5 h reaction time. The solid base catalyst from SS exhibits excellent catalytic activity and stability for the transesterification reaction, which suggests that this catalyst could potentially be used as a solid base catalyst for biodiesel production. To examine the reusability of the catalyst developed from SS, five transesterification reaction cycles were performed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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