Calcium oxide from Pomacea sp. shell as a catalyst for biodiesel production

Heterogeneous catalysts are promising catalyst for the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils to produce biodiesel. In this study, the Pomacea sp. shell was used as the raw material for CaO catalyst. The calcination of Pomacea sp. shell was conducted at 900°C for 2 h. The raw material and the resulting CaO catalyst were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescense spectrometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. From the experimental results, it was found that the maximum yield of fatty acid methyl esters was 95.61% at the following reaction conditions: reaction temperature of 60°C, a reaction period of 4 h, a ratio of methanol-oil at 7:1, and amount of catalyst at 4% w/w. The physical and chemical properties of biodiesel were determined based on ASTM standard, and the values obtained were confirmed with the Indonesian National Standard (SNI-04-7182-2006) and (B100)-ASTM D6751-07b.