article · Energies
Agricultural waste residues can be combined to produce effective heterogeneous catalysts for sustainable biodiesel synthesis. Periwinkle shells, melon seed husks, and locust bean pod husks were blended in a 67:17:17 ratio and calcined at 800 °C for four hours. Structural and chemical characterisation confirmed a mesoporous nanoparticle structure rich in calcium oxide and potassium oxide, which provided the active catalytic sites. The resulting composite catalyst was tested in the transesterification of palm kernel oil, with production conditions optimised using the Taguchi method. Under optimal parameters, the process achieved a maximum biodiesel yield of 90.207 weight percent. In addition, the catalyst remained functional across four reuse cycles. The synthesised fuel successfully satisfied ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 fuel specifications, demonstrating that blending these agricultural waste streams generates a viable catalyst without requiring additional chemical promoters.
Biodiesel manufacturing often relies on costly or environmentally hazardous catalysts. Using common agricultural residues such as periwinkle shells and seed husks provides an accessible, sustainable alternative. Demonstrating that blended biomass waste can convert palm kernel oil into fuel meeting international regulatory benchmarks highlights practical opportunities to lower biofuel production costs while valorising organic processing waste.
This work is directly relevant to biofuel refiners and agricultural processors seeking low-cost, renewable catalyst sources for biodiesel production. The technology sits at an applied and tested stage, having demonstrated compliance with international fuel standards at laboratory scale. Further scale-up, continuous-flow trials, and life-cycle economics would be required before biofuel production facilities could adopt the process commercially.
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The use of biobased heterogeneous catalysts made from agricultural waste for producing biodiesel has gained attention for its potential to create a sustainable and low-cost process. The blending of two or more biomass residues to create more viable biobased catalysts is still in its early stages. In this study, a Biobased Composite Heterogeneous Catalyst (CHC) was made by blending the shells of periwinkle (PWS), melon seed-husk (MSH), and locust bean pod-husk (LBP) at a mixing ratio of 67:17:17 using Simplex Lattice Design Mixture, that was then calcined for 4 h at 800 °C. The chemical, structural, and morphological components of the CHC were characterized via XRF, XRD, SEM-EDX, BET, TGA/DSC, and FTIR to assess its catalytic potential. The CHC was employed to synthesize biodiesel from palm kernel oil, and the process optimization was conducted using the Taguchi approach. The XRF analysis showed that the catalyst had 69.049 of Calcium (Ca) and 9.472 of potassium (K) in their elemental and oxide states as 61.592% calcium oxide and 7.919% potassium oxide. This was also supported by the EDX result, that showed an appreciable value of 58.00% of Ca and 2.30% of magnesium, that perhaps provided the active site in the transesterification reaction to synthesize biodiesel. The morphological and physisorption isotherms via SEM and BET showed mesoporous structures in the CHC that were made up of nanoparticles. A high maximum biodiesel yield of 90.207 wt.% was attained under the optimized process conditions. The catalyst could be reused for up to four cycles, and the biodiesel produced met both ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards for biodiesel. This study demonstrates that blending PWS, MSH, and LBP waste materials can produce high-quality biodiesel without the need for additional catalysts.
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DOI: 10.3390/en16052197
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