Transesterification of soybean oil using combusted oyster shell waste as a catalyst

Nakatani Nobutake

Takamori Hitoshi

Takeda Kazuhiko

Sakugawa Hiroshi

Bioresource Technology

Transesterification of soybean oil catalyzed by combusted oyster shell, which is waste material from shellfish farms, was examined. Powdered oyster shell combusted at a temperature above 700°C, at which point the calcium carbonate of oyster shell transformed to calcium oxide, acted as a catalyst in the transesterification of soybean oil. On the basis of factorial design, the reaction conditions of catalyst concentration and reaction time were optimized in terms of the fatty acid methyl ester concentration expressed as biodiesel purity. Under the optimized reaction conditions of a catalyst concentration and reaction time of 25% wt. and 5 h, respectively, the biodiesel yield, expressed relative to the amount of soybean oil poured into the reaction vial, was more than 70% with high biodiesel purity. These results indicate oyster shell waste combusted at high temperature can be reused in biodiesel production as a catalyst.

Biodiesel

Factorial design

Fatty acid methyl ester

Oyster shell

Soybean oil

Transesterification

Biology [ 460 ]

eng

Elsevier Science Ltd.

Copyright (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd

[ISSN] 0960-8524

[DOI] 10.1016/j.biortech.2008.09.007

[NCID] AA10838373

[DOI] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2008.09.007