Production of biodiesel from tannery waste using a stable and recyclable nano-catalyst: An optimization and kinetic study

Biodiesel is produced from tannery waste by transesterification reaction in the presence of Cs2O loaded onto a nano-magnetic core. The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation followed by thermal oxidation method. The prepared catalyst was characterized using different analytical techniques. Further, the effectiveness of the prepared catalyst was determined by subjecting the fat from tannery waste to transesterification. Investigations were undertaken to determine the effect of the various process parameters influencing the process. Optimum conditions of 21:1 methanol-to-oil molar ratio, 7 wt% catalyst loading at 65 °C for 300 min with a constant stirring rate of 500 rpm produced a maximum yield of 97.1 wt%. The fuel properties of the biodiesel were analyzed as per ASTM test methods and compared with ASTM D6751 standard. Further, kinetic studies were conducted to know the rate of the reaction and its activation energy and frequency factors were identified as 43.8 kJ mol−1 and 7.5 × 104 min−1 respectively.