Effect of TiO2 mixed CaO catalyst in palm oil transesterification

Abstract

Biodiesel is a promising alternative fuel. In this study, production of biodiesel from cooking oil (CO) was carried out via transesterification method. Heterogeneous catalyst, calcium oxide-titanium dioxide (CaO-TiO2) was selected as the best catalyst. The effects of CaO-TiO2 catalyst on catalyst amount and calcined temperature of catalyst towards the percentage conversion of oil to biodiesel were investigated. The catalysts were analyzed using Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) test method. The results obtained showed that 76.67 % of oil was successfully converted into biodiesel using 800°C calcined CaO-TiO2 catalyst. This indicates that the CaO- TiO2 has potential as a future heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. Catalyst dosage of 0.5 w/w% with molar ratio oil to methanol is 3:5, stirring speed of 250 rpm and temperature of 65°C in 1 hour reaction time are the best condition for the conversion of oil to biodiesel. It was found out that, methanol to oil molar ratio and catalyst amount gave significant effect on the conversion of oil.