UTILIZATION OF WASTE ANIMAL BONE AS A HETEROGENEOUS SOLID BASE CATALYST FOR TRANSESTERIFICATION OF JATROPHA OIL

Heterogeneous catalyst plays a vital role in transesterification process, especially in view of cost and reusability. In this study, heterogeneous solid base catalyst was prepared by impregnating the waste animal bone with different weight percent (wt%) KOH solution followed by drying and calcination at 900 °C for 3 hr. Having screened the catalytic performance and basicity of animal bone loaded with different K-compounds, 12 wt% KOH loaded on animal bone was chosen. The physico-chemical properties of animal bone, support and the KOH-impregnated calcined animal bone catalyst were characterized by means of titration (for basicity of catalyst), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy measurements. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was also performed for the selected catalyst. Catalytic performance of the catalyst was evaluated by transesterification Jatropha oil with methanol in batch reactions. The Box-Behnken Design (BBD) of the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of reaction temperature, catalyst loading and methanol to oil molar ratio on Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) yield. Maximum yield of 96.74% was obtained at 11.56:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 5.08 wt% catalyst loading, 64.05 oC reaction temperature and 500 rpm stirring speed in 3 hr reaction time.