Murex Turnispina Shell as Catalyst for Bio-diesel Production

Abstract

Excellent heterogeneous catalyst was developed from waste murex turnispina shell and used in the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) with methanol to obtain fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), otherwise known as bio-diesel. Finely ground murex turnispina shell was subjected to controlled calcination temperatures ranging from 500 to 900ºC for 4h at a ramping rate of 4ºC/min. The characterization results indicate that this process substantially improved both BET specific surface area and the amount of basic sites. Transesterification of waste cooking oil was used to determine the activity of developed catalyst. The effects of different reaction parameters such as the calcination temperature, molar ratio of methanol to WCO, catalyst loading and reaction time on the transesterification reaction were investigated.  The data obtained showed that at 830ºC calcination temperature, catalyst amount of 3 wt. %, methanol/oil mole ratio of 6:1, 2 h reaction time and at methanol reflux reaction temperature of 65ºC, 99% FAME yield was obtained. The catalyst showed good stability during the recycling experiments and it was sustained for four consecutive runs. Murex turnispina shell-derived catalyst is cost effective catalyst for FAME production via transesterification of WCO with methanol and it offers a novel opportunity to utilize both waste cooking oil and waste murex turnispina shells.