article · Results in Chemistry
Heterogeneous catalysts offer distinct advantages in cost and reusability for biodiesel manufacturing. In this study, a solid base catalyst was developed by wet impregnation of a chicken bone and eggshell mixture calcined at 900 °C with potassium hydroxide. A formulation containing seven weight per cent potassium hydroxide exhibited the highest catalytic activity. The material was tested in a single-stage process that combined castor seed oil extraction and transesterification using methanol as both reactant and solvent. Process optimisation using response surface methodology established conditions yielding up to 97.96 per cent fatty acid methyl esters. The resulting biodiesel was verified using spectroscopy, and the waste-derived catalyst was demonstrated to remain active across three successive reaction cycles.
Biodiesel is a sustainable alternative to conventional fuels, but production costs remain high. Using poultry waste to create reusable catalysts lowers chemical input expenses and turns discarded shells and bones into value-added materials. Additionally, combining oil extraction and chemical conversion into a single step reduces processing stages, energy demands, and solvent handling requirements.
The findings demonstrate an applied, laboratory-tested process that could enable biofuel manufacturers to lower production costs through waste-derived catalysts and consolidated extraction steps. The primary users would be industrial biodiesel producers and agricultural processing facilities handling non-edible oilseeds. As the work is at an early experimental stage, scaling up beyond benchtop batch reactors and proving catalyst durability across extended reuse cycles will be required before commercial adoption.
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Heterogeneous catalyst plays a vital role in transesterification process, especially in case of cost and reusability. In this study, heterogeneous solid base catalyst was prepared through wet impregnation process and the produced catalyst was used for simultaneous castor seed oil extraction and transesterification process. Thermogravimetric analysis for chicken bone and eggshell was performed to identify the common decomposition temperature range. The impregnation was performed using 5, 7 and 11 wt% of KOH with calcined chicken bone-eggshell mixture at 900 °C under impregnating temperature ranges of room temperature, 40 °C, 60 °C and 80 °C. The catalyst prepared by impregnating 7 wt% of potassium hydroxide in calcined chicken bone-eggshell mixture as a support was found to show the best catalyst activity among the prepared catalysts. The characterization of KOH-impregnated, calcined and raw chicken bone-eggshell mixture was conducted by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Catalytic performance of the catalyst was evaluated by simultaneous extraction and transesterification of castor seed using methanol as reactant and solvent. Box-behnken design of the response surface methodology was employed to investigate the effect of reaction time, catalyst dosage and methanol to oil molar ratio on the yield of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Maximum yield of 97.96% was obtained at the optimum condition of methanol to oil molar ratio of 319.69, catalyst dosage of 3.06% and reaction time of 7.32 h with fixed stirring speed of 400 rpm and 65 °C reaction temperature. The produced FAME under optimum condition was characterized by using FTIR and gas Chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) analysis. The selected catalyst has been reused successfully for three catalytic cycles.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.rechem.2026.103763
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