Center for Environmental Science, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ministry of Innovation and Technology (Ethiopia), P. O. Box 2490, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 12;9(1):18982. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55403-4.
Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil (WCO) provides an alternative energy means of producing liquid fuels from biomass for various uses. Biodiesel production by recycling WCO and methanol in the presence of calcium oxide (CaO) nano-catalyst offers several benefits such as economic, environmental and waste management. A nano-catalyst of CaO was synthesized by thermal-decomposition method and calcinated at 500 °C followed by characterization using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. The XRD results revealed nano-scale crystal sizes at high purity, with a mean particle size of ~29 nm. The SEM images exhibited morphology of irregular shapes and porous structure of the synthesized nanocatalysts. The highest conversion of WCO to biodiesel was estimated to be 96%, at optimized experimental conditions i.e., 50 °C, 1:8 WCO oil to methanol ratio, 1% by weight of catalyst loading rate and 90 minutes reaction time, which is among few highest conversions reported so far. Biodiesel properties were tested according to the American (ASTM D6571) fuel standards. All reactions are carried-out under atmospheric pressure and 1500 rpm of agitation.
从废弃食用油（WCO）生产生物柴油为各种用途提供了一种替代能源，可从生物质生产液体燃料。在氧化钙（CaO）纳米催化剂的存在下，通过回收 WCO 和甲醇生产生物柴油具有经济、环境和废物管理等多种好处。通过热分解法合成了 CaO 纳米催化剂，并在 500°C 下煅烧，然后使用 X 射线衍射（XRD）和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）技术进行了表征。XRD 结果表明纳米晶体尺寸具有高纯度，平均粒径约为 29nm。SEM 图像显示了不规则形状和合成纳米催化剂的多孔结构。在最佳实验条件下，WCO 到生物柴油的最高转化率估计为 96%，即 50°C、WCO 油与甲醇的比例为 1:8、催化剂负载率为 1%重量和 90 分钟的反应时间，这是迄今为止报道的最高转化率之一。根据美国（ASTM D6571）燃料标准测试了生物柴油的性能。所有反应均在大气压力和 1500rpm 的搅拌下进行。
