Synthesis of Heterogeneous Catalyst from Waste Snail Shells for Biodiesel Production using <i>Afzelia africana</i> Seed Oil

Abstract

Biodiesel has gained more recognition as a fuel to replace fossil fuel which has cause a lot of damage to the environment and high cost of the product. The best way to reduce the cost of the production of biodiesel is to use feed stocks which are cheap which accounts for the larger percentage of biodiesel production cost. The use of less expensive feed stock and optimization of process variables that affect the yield presents the opportunity of significantly reduction of the cost. An investigation was carried out with Afzelia africana oil seed and waste snail shells as raw materials. One step transesterification was conducted to produce the biodiesel. Snailshells was used as a source of Calcium oxide (CaO) heterogeneous catalysts by calcination process at 600⁰C for 6h. Four processe variables were optimized; methanol to oil ratio (6:1), reaction temperature (55 ⁰C), catalyst concentration (1.5 wt%) and reaction time (65 min). The fuel properties of the produced biodiesel from A. africana seed oil were compared with ASTM standard and all the properties determined from the oil were all within the standard.

Keywords: Snail shell, A. africana seed, optimization, Biodiesel, transesterification, fuel properties.