Production of biodiesel based on moringa seed oil at varied reaction times by using CaO catalyst from chicken eggshells

Moringa seed oil has many long-chain fatty acid contents that very potential transformed become fatty acid methyl ester or biodiesel. CaO material that was obtained from calcinating of chicken eggshells can be used as a heterogeneous catalyst at biodiesel production from Moringa seed oil. The purpose of this research was to determine the reaction time that produced biodiesel with the highest mass fraction of fatty acid methyl esters and also to determine the characteristics of biodiesel. Biodiesel was made through a transesterification reaction by using CaO catalyst at a mole ratio of oil: methanol of 1:6 for 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours. Transesterification reaction for 2 hours resulted in a methyl ester mass fraction of 82.69%. GC-MS analysis result has shown that methyl oleate had the highest concentration of 86.56% at a retention time of 37.62 minutes. The characteristics of biodiesel including the acid number of 0.09 mg KOH/g, saponification number of 356.4 mg KOH/g, iodine number of 0.635 g iod/100g, cloud point of 13°C, pour point of 20°C, and cetane number of 61.45.