Biodiesel production from waste frying oil using waste animal bone and solar heat

• Biodiesel production from waste frying oil (WFO) using solar radiation as heating source.
• Free fatty acids (FFAs) of WFO could be esterified using calcined waste animal-bone catalyst.
• Produced biodiesel fulfills all the international requirements for its utilization as a fuel.
• Mechanism for FFA esterification is proposed considering Ca3(PO4)3OH at catalyst surface.
• Biodiesel produced through this process is sustainable and of low cost.

A two-step catalytic process for the production of biodiesel from waste frying oil (WFO) at low cost, utilizing waste animal-bone as catalyst and solar radiation as heat source is reported in this work. In the first step, the free fatty acids (FFA) in WFO were esterified with methanol by a catalytic process using calcined waste animal-bone as catalyst, which remains active even after 10 esterification runs. The trans-esterification step was catalyzed by NaOH through thermal activation process. Produced biodiesel fulfills all the international requirements for its utilization as a fuel. A probable reaction mechanism for the esterification process is proposed considering the presence of hydroxyapatite at the surface of calcined animal bones.

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