Biodiesel production from palm oil using banana weevil ash as a solid catalyst

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the performance of a banana weevil ash catalyst for biodiesel production at varied methanol to oil ratio. The method is the ash catalyst prepared through the simple burning of banana weevil in an open room. The powder is crushed by mortar and calcined at 600 °C for 5 hours. The crystallinity and the morphologies of the powder were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDX. The biodiesel production was carried out in a batch reactor for 90 minutes using stirrer at 65 °C. The molar ratio of methanol to oil was varied of 6:1, 8:1, 10:1, 12:1, and 14:1 with catalyst loading of 4.0 wt.%. The results showed that the highest yield was reached 96% at methanol to oil ratios of 12:1. The density and viscosity of biodiesel were reported of 0.85 gr/ml and 3.04 cSt, respectively. The properties of biodiesel showed conformity in the range of SNI standard. Based on these results, it can be concluded that, banana weevil ashes can be a promising heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production.