ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to develop a composite bifunctional from; BaCl₂, Co(NO₃)₂, plantain peduncle and periwinkle shell for the one-step esterification-transesterification of waste cooking oil to produce biodiesel. The catalyst was prepared using the Incipient wetness Impregnation (IWI) method and was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), XRF spectroscopy results obtained, showed that the method of incipient wetness impregnation failed to confer Barium and Cobalt (Acidic) active sites on the catalyst surface but the catalyst had other acid active sites conferred by plantain peduncle and periwinkle shell, these sites along with other basic sites made the prepared catalyst bifunctional, biodiesel was successfully produced without the formation of soaps.

The effects of parameters affecting the catalytic reaction were studied within specified ranges, parameters such as; reaction temperature (40–80 °C), reaction time (60-150 mins), catalyst loading (1–5wt%), and methanol-to-oil ratio (6:1–15:1) were investigated, the optimization of these parameters for the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to produce biodiesel was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken Design (BBD) along with the application of analysis of variance (ANOVA), to examine the importance of the model parameters which showed that a maximum biodiesel yield of 72% could be obtained at a reaction temperature of 63.62°C, reaction time of 150 mins, with a catalyst loading of 2.948 wt.% and methanol-to-oil ratio of 6:1, the ANOVA results showed that of all variables studied, methanol-oil ratio had the most effect on the biodiesel yield .