Valorization of Waste Date Seeds for Green Carbon Catalysts and Biodiesel Synthesis

The decreasing availability of fossil fuels and environmental issues associated with their use has placed a greater emphasis on biofuels production as a competent alternative source to produce energy in the current era. Production of biofuels from plant-based oil has a good prospect as a competent alternative to fossil fuels. The concept of utilizing waste date pits for biofuels production is promising due to its abundant availability in Oman. Present work reports, a better way to valorize the waste biomass (Date pits) is adopted in order to get environment friendly catalyst which will be effectively used for producing biodiesel. The produced carbon material was impregnated with KOH to enhance the efficiency and analyzed by SEM, XRD, EDX and BET. The production of biodiesel was analyzed by parametric studies involving following process parameters which include process temperature, reaction time, type of catalysts along with methanol to oil ratio. The maximum yield obtained was 91.6% for following parametric value such as temperature 65 degrees C, for C3 (6 wt% KOH on carbon) catalyst when 9: 1 methanol to oil ratio was used. Moreover, the verification for quality of produced biodiesel was done by comparison with standards recognized internationally (ASTM and EN). The produced biodiesel possessed a cetane number of 60.31, density 881 kg/m(3), flash point 141 degrees C, viscosity was measured to be 4.24 mm(2)/s, low temperature properties which includes cloud point, cold filter plugging point and pour point were 3.9 degrees C, -0.62 degrees C, -1.4 degrees C respectively thus these properties identify the quality of produced biodiesel. Thus, all properties were within the ranges provided standards of ASTM and EN. Thus, it can be concluded that Date pits biomass is potential alternative source for catalyst synthesis along with biodiesel.