Biodiesel production over a catalyst prepared from biomass-derived waste date pits

Abstract

Date palms are predominately produced in arid regions and the date pits, or seeds, produced from them are sometimes considered to be a waste. Date pits, ground to powder following an oil extraction, were used to synthesize a renewable heterogeneous catalyst. The green carbon catalyst was modified by an alkaline earth metal oxide (CaO). The oil extracted from date pits was transformed into biodiesel. The biodiesel process was optimized and the optimal yield was 98.2 wt% at a reaction temperature of 70 °C, reaction time ∼120 min, methanol to oil molar ratio of 12 and catalyst loading of 4.5 wt%. The quality of the produced biodiesel meets the standard limits set by regulating agencies (ASTM, EU) which indicates its suitability to be used as a fuel. Thus, it can be concluded that the green carbon catalyst synthesized from waste date pits has a high potential for biodiesel production. Keywords: Biodiesel, Green catalyst, Alkaline earth metal oxide, Waste date biomass, Biomass-derived fuel