Waste shells of Chicken and Guinea fowl eggs as catalysts for the production biodiesel

Abstract

Raw material costs are responsible for the greater percentage of biodiesel production cost. In this research chicken and guinea fowl wastes eggshell were used as feedstock for the producing heterogeneous catalyst for production of biodiesel. Proceeding their utilization, calcium oxide (CaO) was obtained by calcining the eggshells which contains calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) in a muffle furnace at of 1000 for four hours. The solid oxide catalyst produced were then characterized by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and XRF methods. The activity of the produced catalyst in transesterification of calabash seed oil with methanol was assessed, and the properties of biodiesel obtained were evaluated. The various effect of reaction time, reaction temperature, methanol/oil molar ratio, catalyst loading, agitation speed and their reusability of the produced catalyst were also evaluated. The experimental outcome showed that methanol to oil of 12:1 M ratio, 1.5 wt.% catalyst, 64 reaction temperature, 2 hours reaction time and speed of 250 rpm gave the ultima results. The results also indicate that the guinea fowl egg shell derived CaO catalyst has higher surface area, basicity and smaller particle size. The guinea fowl egg shell also exhibit higher biodiesel yield of 96% compared to 95% for chicken egg shell. The CaO catalyst derived from waste calcined chicken and guinea fowl egg shell endured a good catalytic performance after being repetitively used for 8 cycles with yield of around 91%, which suggests possible saving and inexpensive biodiesel production potentials. egg shell of chicken and guinea fowl are therefore potential bioresource for the production of heterogeneous catalyst that can be effectively exploited for the production of biodiesel.