Nano Nickel-Zirconia: An Effective Catalyst for the Production of Biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil
Mohammed Rafi Shaik,
Mujeeb Khan,
J. V. Shanmukha Kumar,
Muhammad Ashraf,
Majad Khan,
Mufsir Kuniyil,
Mohamed E. Assal,
Abdulrahman Al-Warthan,
Mohammed Rafiq H. Siddiqui,
Aslam Khan,
Muhammad Nawaz Tahir,
Syed Farooq Adil
Affiliations
Mohammed Rafi Shaik
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mujeeb Khan
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
J. V. Shanmukha Kumar
Department of Engineering Chemistry, College of Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Vaddeswaram, Guntur 522 502, Andhra Pradesh, India
Muhammad Ashraf
Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 5048, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Majad Khan
Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 5048, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Mufsir Kuniyil
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed E. Assal
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Al-Warthan
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Rafiq H. Siddiqui
Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, UK
Aslam Khan
King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Nawaz Tahir
Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 5048, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Syed Farooq Adil
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
The utilization of heterogeneous catalysts during the production of biodiesel potentially minimize the cost of processing due to the exclusion of the separation step. The (X wt%)Ni–ZrO2 (where X = 10, 25 and 50) catalysts prepared through a hydrothermal process were tested for the production of biodiesel by the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) with methanol. The influences of various reaction parameters were systematically optimized. While the physicochemical characteristics of the as-synthesized catalysts were examined using numerous techniques such as FTIR, XRD, TGA BET, EDX, SEM, and HRTEM. Among all the catalysts, (10 wt%)Ni–ZrO2 exhibited high surface area when compared to the pristine ZrO2, (25 wt%)Ni–ZrO2 and (50 wt%)Ni–ZrO2 nanocatalysts. It may have influenced the catalytic properties of (10 wt%)Ni–ZrO2, which exhibited maximum catalytic activity with a biodiesel production yield of 90.5% under optimal conditions. Such as 15:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 10 wt% catalysts to oil ratio, 8 h reaction time and 180 °C reaction temperature. Furthermore, the recovered catalyst was efficiently reused in several repeated experiments, demonstrating marginal loss in its activity after multiple cycles (five times).
