Study of Esterification of Waste Cooking Oil using Solid Acid Catalyst Derived from Coconut Coir

To deal with the issues of energy security, climate changes, and environmental protection, the use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel is recognized worldwide. All these activities are leading to potential setbacks such as deforestation and escalating food prices. The use of waste cooking oil (WCO) as a feedstock and biochar based solid acid catalyst prepared from agricultural waste biomass can be the key solutions to above-mentioned setbacks. A carbon-based solid acid catalyst has been prepared by sulfonation of biochar derived from pyrolysis of coconut coir. The catalyst is characterized using FTIR, SEM, elemental analysis and total acid density analysis. The performance of prepared catalyst has been tested over esterification of FFA present in the waste cooking oil. The effects of alcohol to oil (A: O) molar ratio, reaction time and catalyst loading over the yield of esterification reaction catalyzed by the sulfonated biochar have been investigated. The results obtained conclude that Free Fatty Acid (FFA) conversion increases with the increase of A: O molar ratio, reaction time and catalyst loading. The optimal reaction conditions are A: O molar ratio 18: 1, catalyst loading 5% (wt% of WCO) reaction temperature 65⁰C and reaction time 7 hrs for FFA conversion of 84.92%.