CaO-Based Heterogeneous Catalyst from Cow Bone for Direct Cracking of Triglycerides

Abstract

A calcium oxide (CaO)-based heterogeneous catalyst derived from waste cow bone for the direct cracking of Moringa oleifera seed oil was investigated. Optimi zation was carried out using a five-level-four-factorial central composite design based on response surface methodology in 30 experimental runs. Under the opti mal conditions of reaction temperature, catalyst concentration, reaction time, and agitation speed, 68 % biodiesel was achieved. A total of four major fatty acid meth yl esters were identified in the synthesized biodiesel by the retention time and fragmentation pattern data of the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analy sis. The statistical model for predicting the biodiesel yield was developed for the effects and percentage contributions of the optimization variables.