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Application of Green Catalyst Synthesized from Snail Shell in Conversion of Marula Seeds Oil to Biodiesel

C Muhammad, MN Almustapha, AD Tambuwal, Buhari Idris, Bashar Hadi Abdullahi

With the aim of developing a process of biodiesel production that is environmentally benign greater interest is been focused on the use of solid base catalysts, such as calcium oxide, for the transesterification of vegetable oils. Snail shell was subjected to calcination–hydration–dehydration treatment to obtained CaO. The resulting CaO catalyst was characterized using XRF, XRD and FTIR analysis. The optimization process was carried out using Box-Behnken design on Design Expert (version 6) software. The effect of reaction variables such as temperature (˚C), reaction time (min), methanol to oil ratio and catalyst concentration (g) on the transesterification process was investigated. The model developed showed optimum conditions for biodiesel production as follows: Catalyst concentration of 0.5 g, temperature of 60˚C, methanol to oil ratio of 9:1 and reaction time of 120 min. The optimal yield of methyl esters obtained is 94.62%. The study revealed that the crucial fuel properties of the biodiesel produced at the optimum conditions met the ASTM biodiesel specifications.