Summary
The present work investigates the synthesis of a new and highly efficient sodium‐doped nanohydroxyapatite, as a heterogeneous catalyst for the production of fatty acid methyl esters from Schizochytrium algae oil. Sodium nitrate supported on nanohydroxyapatite catalyst was prepared using wet impregnation technique and calcinated at different temperatures. The synthesized nanocatalyst was characterized to determine the structural and morphological properties, using BET, XRD, TGA, FTIR, ICP, and TEM. Characterization results reported that the catalyst calcinated at 900°C exhibits good catalytic property. The catalyst was utilized for the production of biodiesel, under different reaction parameters through transesterification process. Response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) were employed to evaluate the best combination of molar ratio, catalyst concentration, and reaction time for transesterification process. By using point prediction method, the optimum yield of 96% was achieved at the catalyst concentration of 9.5 wt% of oil, 1:12 molar ratio, and 121‐minute reaction time. The physiochemical properties of the biodiesel were determined, and the result suggested that the biodiesel produced met ASTM D6751 standard. The catalyst exhibits good catalytic performance on reusability up to six runs without the loss of molecular activity. Therefore, the synthesized heterogeneous catalyst derived from animal bone could be efficiently used for the biodiesel production.