Heteropolyacid and Lithium Infused Calcium Oxide Catalyst for Biodiesel Production from Food Waste

The advancement of mixed metal oxide catalysts has attracted considerable attention among various workers. Supported MoOx catalyst materials possess more Lewis and Brønsted acid functionalities which assist in the efficient biodiesel production. In this study, ammonium molybdate and Li+ were loaded over eggshells-derived calcium oxide to transesterify the frying oil/waste cooking oil (WCO) to produce biodiesel/fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Characterization techniques i.e., X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were employed to confirm the material. The surface modelling predicted the transesterification reaction parameters. The optimal condition to transesterify WCO with synthesized Mo/Li/CaO catalyst was 6 wt.% catalyst dose, 13.70:1 ratio of methanol:oil (m/o), time of 1 h and 60 ºC temperature. The optimum FAME yield of 97% was observed. The gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and other spectroscopic techniques were used to analyze produced FAME. The reusability of catalyst was good and the catalyst can be reutilized effectively up to a limit of 5 runs. By leveraging this innovative catalyst derived from eggshells, this study contribute to a more sustainable and cost-effective biodiesel production process.