Sonocogreen Decoration of Clinoptilolite by CaO Nanorods as Ecofriendly Catalysts in the Transesterification of Castor Oil into Biodiesel; Response Surface Studies

Mostafa R Abukhadra; Mohamed Gameel Basyouny; Ahmed M El-Sherbeeny; Mohammed A El-Meligy; Monis Luqman

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c05371

Sonocogreen Decoration of Clinoptilolite by CaO Nanorods as Ecofriendly Catalysts in the Transesterification of Castor Oil into Biodiesel; Response Surface Studies

ACS Omega. 2021 Jan 8;6(2):1556-1567. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c05371. eCollection 2021 Jan 19.

Authors

Mostafa R Abukhadra^{1

2}, Mohamed Gameel Basyouny^{2

3}, Ahmed M El-Sherbeeny⁴, Mohammed A El-Meligy⁵, Monis Luqman⁶

Affiliations

¹ Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef City 62511, Egypt.
² Materials Technologies and Their Applications Lab, Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef City 62511, Egypt.
³ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef City 62511, Egypt.
⁴ Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

A CaO/clinoptilolite green nanocomposite (CaO/Clino) was synthesized by a green modification technique using calcium nitrate and green tea extract. The CaO/Clino nanocomposite promises a total basicity of 4.82 mmol OH/g, surface area of 252.4 m²/g, and ion exchange capacity of 134.3 mequiv/100 g, which qualifies the product as an effective catalyst in the transesterification of castor oil. The transesterification performance of the CaO/Clino catalyst was addressed statistically based on the response surface methodology and central composite rotatable design, considering the essential experimental parameters. Based on the interaction effect between the studied variables, the CaO/Clino catalyst can achieve an experimental biodiesel yield of 93.8% after 2.5 h at 120 °C with 3.5 wt % catalyst loading and 15:1 ethanol/castor oil molar ratio. The optimization function of the design suggested enhancement in the performance of the CaO/Clino catalyst to achieve a yield of 95.4% if the test time interval increased to 2.65 h and the ethanol content increased to 16:1 as a molar ratio to castor oil. The produced biodiesel over CaO/ClinO has acceptable technical qualifications according to the international requirements (EN 14214 and ASTM D-6751). The synthetic green CaO/Clino nanocomposite has better recyclability as a heterogeneous catalyst and higher activity than some investigated catalysts in literature.