Programme Book - UPM - Universiti Putra Malaysia

P10 CONVERSION OF PALM OIL TO BIODIESEL OVERNiO/CaO CATALYSTS VIA CO-PRECIPITATION METHODEric S.T Soo, S. Zulkifie, E.N Muhamad*Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPMSerdang, Selangor, MalaysiaCorresponding author: erneenm@science.upm.edu.myBiodiesels are an emerging field of interest in the renewable energy sector due to theirlow emission profiles and relatively low environmental impact. There has been muchresearch carried out on various catalysts to produce better improvements of existingcatalysts (i.e. homogeneous catalysts). Solid heterogeneous catalysts have betterbenefits in term of product separation and reusability. In this study, thetransesterification of palm oil to biodiesel on NiO/CaO catalysts prepared by coprecipitationmethod were studied. The effects of various reaction variables such asthe nickel oxide loading (3, 5, 10 and 15 wt%), methanol to oil molar ratio (10, 15, 20,25: 1 methanol: oil ratio), reaction time (2, 4, 6, 8 h), reaction temperature (65, 70, 75,80°C) and catalyst amount (1, 2, 3, 4 wt%) on the conversion of palm oil wereinvestigated. All of the prepared catalysts were characterized by means of X-rayDiffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Surface Area Measurement (BET), FieldEmission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Inductively Coupled PlasmaAtomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) and Temperature Programmed Desorptionof CO 2 (TPD-CO 2 ). Among the prepared catalysts, 5wt% NiO-supported on CaOcatalyst shows the highest biodiesel yield of more than 85% at reaction conditions of75°C, 2h, 1:10 (oil: MeOH) and 1wt% of catalyst amount. Reusability of this catalystwas also examined.25 |16 th Industrial Chemistry Seminar: Chemistry- A Passport to a Brighter Future