Abstract
The transesterification of edible and non-edible oils to produce biodiesel is traditionally carried out using homogeneous catalysts (such as NaOH, KOH, and H2SO4). However, these homogenous catalysts often suffer from multiple drawbacks including their corrosive nature and solubility in the reaction mixture, and high costs associated with their recovery. Recent studies have shown that heterogeneous catalysts based on mixed metal oxides have the potential to address the issues associated with conventional homogeneous catalysts, thereby emerging as an efficient class of catalyst materials for biodiesel production. In this study, we describe a heterogeneous strontium oxide/calcium oxide (SrO-CaO) mixed metal oxides catalyst, which displays remarkable efficiency towards the ultrasonic-assisted transesterification of Jatropha oil into biodiesel. The SrO-CaO heterogeneous catalyst was prepared by the wet impregnation method, and the structural morphology of the as-synthesized catalyst was revealed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and nitrogen sorption technique coupled with the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda methods. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the cubic structure of the SrO-CaO catalyst. The catalytic activity of this newly developed catalyst showed a high percentage conversion of triglyceride into the corresponding fatty acid methyl esters (98.19%) as confirmed by H-1 NMR spectroscopy. The chemical composition of the prepared biodiesel by this ultrasonic-assisted transesterification process was determined by the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Five major fatty acid methyl esters were identified, of which 9-octadecenoic acid methyl ester was obtained with the highest percentage similar to 38.22%. Hence, the study reveals that the SrO-CaO catalyst exhibits high efficiency towards converting Jatropha oil into biodiesel by ultrasonic-assisted transesterification.