Utilization of Waste Eggshell as Catalyst in Biodiesel Production and Investigation of Efficiency, Density and Viscosity Parameters of Biodiesel Obtained in Different Reaction Times

Abstract

Rise in the global population, industrialization and urbanization together withincreasing global trade and production facilities increase the demand forenergy and natural resources every other year. Meeting the energy need arisingfrom increasing industrialization, population growth and urbanization isreasonably the initial requirement of a sustainable development. Due to thestart of rapid depletion of fossil fuels, alternative energy sources haveundertaken a crucial role in producing energy. One of them is biodiesel. Inproduction process of biodiesel via transesterification, one of the most vitalparameters affecting the production efficiency is the catalyst that is used.Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts are utilized in biodiesel production.A number of factors such as saponification, spending great amount of reactiveand extra dissociation cost have negative influences on production cost.Because of these reasons, efforts to develop high heterogeneous catalysts tohinder saponification, and the ones with high efficiency and possessingreusability have gained great acceleration and significance nowadays.In this study, using cheap and local waste eggshell as catalyst and the efficiencyof biodiesel obtained in different reaction times and the effect of density andviscosity parameters were investigated. In the optimization studies (3-hourreaction time), the efficiency of the biodiesel obtained as a result of the firstuse of the catalyst was 94,82%, the density was 887kg / m3 and the viscositywas 4,965mm2 / s. The results obtained in the second and third uses of thecatalyst were 93.43%, 890 kg / m3, 4.962 mm2 / s and 91.96, 889 kg / m3, 4.968mm2 / s, respectively. The study was detailed by means of analysis methodssuch as XRD and P-XRF. The results obtained suggest that waste eggshell canbe used as catalyst, and that this can have great effect on biodiesel efficiencyand that waste eggshell catalyst can be reused and that it can particularly reducethe biodiesel cost significantly.