Natural Clay of Pasaman Barat Enriched by CaO of Chicken Eggshells as Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

This study uses broiler chicken eggshells to enhance catalytic activity of clay obtained from Pasaman Barat (West Sumatra, Indonesia) in lab-scale biodiesel production. The eggshell is a source of calcium oxide (CaO) which operates as a catalyst when mixed with the clay (Ca-Clay). Two other catalysts were also prepared as comparisons by 1) heating the clay at 800 oC for 6 hours (P-Clay), 2) mixing the P-Clay with KOH (K-Clay). An X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) showed the elemental composition of Ca-Clay contained Ca, Si, Al, and Fe. An X-ray Diffraction (XRD) showed the formation of highly crystalline CaO in the Ca-Clay with the main peak at 2θ = 37.27o. The Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectrum showed an absorption peak in the range of 700-900 cm-1 indicating Ca-O stretching demonstrating successful incorporation of the CaO into the clay. The catalytic activity test showed the Ca-Clay had a higher catalytic performance than P-Clay and K-Clay in terms of the yield of biodiesel produced (73%). Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).