Musa champa peduncle waste-derived efficient catalyst: Studies of biodiesel synthesis, reaction kinetics and thermodynamics

In this study, an efficient heterogeneous catalyst was prepared from waste Musa champa peduncle and employed in biodiesel synthesis from Jatropha curcas oil. Catalyst characterization was performed using sophisticated techniques. The catalyst calcined at 550 °C, due to the existence of a higher amount of K as oxide and carbonate, exhibited better catalytic activity than the burnt ash catalyst. A high biodiesel yield of 98.23% was achieved at the optimum experimental conditions (OECs) of 12:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil (MRMO) and 7 wt% of catalyst at 65 °C in 6 min. The burnt catalyst yielded 96.22% of biodiesel in 13 min under the same OECs. The calcined catalyst with a micro-mesoporous structure demonstrated a higher basicity of 1.65 mmol g−1 compared to the burnt ash catalyst (1.46 mmol g−1). The transesterification followed the kinetics of pseudo-first-order with activation energies of 50.63 and 53.62 kJ mol−1 for calcined catalyst and burnt ash catalyst. The catalyst, being easily available, low-cost, and environmentally friendly, has strong potential for the cost-effective production of biodiesel.