Effect of alumina support on cow bone-based catalyst in one-step transesterification of neem seed oil

Alumina supported heterogenous base catalyst (CaO/alumina) was developed from cow bone via wet impregnation method and used with Ferric sulphate for one step transesterification of neem seed oil. Effect of alumina support on cow bone ash was studied for transesterification process and was compared with cow bone ash without alumina support. Transesterification of the neem seed oil was done at 120 minutes for 3 %w/w, 4 %w/w, 5 %w/w and 6 %w/w catalyst loading at 60 0C temperature and 15:1 methanol to oil ratio. Optimum conversion of biodiesel was at 2 hours reaction time and 5 wt % catalyst loading, 4:1 Ferric sulphate to cow bone ash ratio, 60 0C temperature and 15:1 methanol to oil ratio for cow bone ash supported with alumina. The synthesized catalyst was characterised using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The transesterified oil was analysed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis. GCMS analysis gave a conversion of 96.53% for cow bone ash/Al2O3 and 76.33% for cow bone without support. The oil was also characterised for physicochemical properties which meets ASTM standard. Result showed that synthesized catalyst using alumina support enhanced production of high yield biodiesel in 2 hours reaction time.