The environmental problems caused by the excessive usage of fossil fuel, prompted the need for an alternative source of energy. Renewable energy from biodiesel is one of the most promising substitutions of fossil fuel due its environmental-friendliness. In the present work NaOH-modified γ-alumina heterogeneous base catalysts were prepared using wet impregnation method, and characterized by Nitrogen Adsorption Analysis (BET), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR), X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), basic back titration, and Temperature Programmed Desorption-CO2 (CO2-TPD). The catalysts were tested for the transesterification of rice bran oil with methanol, and the biodiesel product characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red-Attenuated Total Reflection (FTIR-ATR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) analyses. Catalyst synthesize with 50% NaOH was found to have the highest basic sites and when applied for the transesterification of rice bran oil it gave the highest yield of 81.2%. The high catalytic activity is attributed to the formation of NaAlO2 that is believed to contribute to the basicity of the catalyst.

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Desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) is perennial plant with a variety of application in vegetable oil, food preparation, condiment and medicine. This work covers extraction and physico-chemical parameters analysis: acid value, iodine value and saponification value of Balanite aegyptiaca seed oil samples obtainable at Dutsin-Ma Area, Katsina State. Soxhlet extraction method was used in order to extract oil from the samples followed by its analysis according to standard protocols. The result shows that the seeds have high oil content, percent yield of 39.58% with the density of 0.91 g/cm3, acid value 2.66, iodine value 98.74 g/100g, saponification value of 186.5 mgKOH/g and low moisture content of 2.6% was obtained. This shows that the seeds of Balanite aegyptiaca oil of Dutsin-Ma local area have high oil yield and good qualities making it suitable for use in a variety of applications to improve its value chain

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Mesoporous c-alumina was synthesized by acid extraction of alumina from Kano kaolin using polyoxyethylene (40) stearate (PS) as a surfactant. The synthesized alumina was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), N 2 adsorption-desorption, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy attached with energydispersive X-ray (FESEM-EDX), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA). High-purity mesoporous c-Al 2 O 3 with relatively large surface area and narrow pore size distribution was obtained. For comparison the preparation in the absence of surfactant was also carried out. In this study mesoporous alumina was also obtained even in the absence of the surfactant, however, the addition of PS resulted in modification on physical properties and morphology. The surface area increased from 169.0 m 2 /g to 222.7 m 2 /g, pore size from 4.4 nm to 5.6 nm and pore volume from 0.32 cm 3 /g to 0.45 cm 3 /g. Crystallite size was also found to increase from 2.68 nm to 3.33 nm after the addition of the surfactant. ª 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).