Synthesis of Biodiesel from Sunflower Oil Using the Calcium Carbide Dust as a Solid Catalyst

Abstract

The developed solid catalyst from calcium carbide dust (CCD) with potassium nitrate is investigated for transesterification of sunflower oil to biodiesel or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The objective of this study is to develop the solid catalyst from CCD and test it at various operating parameters such as wt. % of KNO3/CCD, molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction time and reusability of the modified solid catalyst with a fixed reaction temperature of 60 °C and 3 wt. % of catalyst loading. The FAME yield was up to 97 wt. % with 15 wt. % of KNO3/CCD, 15:1 methanol-to-oil molar ratio and 7 h reaction time. Unfortunately, the modified solid catalyst could not be reused after regeneration using n-hexane washing followed by recalcination at 500 °C for 3 h.