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The present work is primarily focused on use of an agriculture waste i.e. groundnut shell for preparation of Mg metal ion supported heterogeneous catalyst. Wet impregnation method was followed to prepare the catalyst and finally physiological characterization was done by XRD, FESEM, SEM-EDS, HR-TEM, TGA and BET surface area analysis. Nano range metal oxide ions were observed during HR-TEM analysis and formation of Epsomite was confirmed by XRD analysis. Mg grafting followed by calcination made the catalyst heat stable above 500 °C. Effect of Mg metal loading during methanolysis of waste cooking oil was extensively studied by developing a second order kinetic model. The catalytic activity was studied by using various weight proportions of waste shell and metal oxide. The most important factor i.e. reusability of catalyst was studied thoroughly and after seven cycle the decrease in methyl ester yield was found to be only 2.9%.

In this work, a heterogeneous catalyst was developed from waste fish bone. ZnO was deposited onto the waste fish bone to enhance the surface properties along with ion exchangeability. After characterization, the developed catalyst was found to have a much higher surface area (217 m2 g−1) than that of raw fish bone (10 m2 g−1). This catalyst was used during peroxidation of oleic acid rich Azadirachta indica oil (neem oil) to observe its suitability and efficiency. A quadratic model was developed with five input variables (temperature (T), time (t), g/g of catalyst (HZn), H2O2:oil ratio (γH:FA), formic acid:oil ratio (γF:FA)) and 2 output variables (Iodine value, Oxirane Oxygen Conversion). The optimized parametric values for T, t, HZn, γH:FA, and γF:FA were found to be 60 °C, 3.88 h, 20 g/g, 19.05:1, and 19.85:1 respectively. The final epoxidized oil was characterized using FTIR and 1HNMR. The reusability of the catalyst was studied both quantitatively and qualitatively. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

In this work, waste fish bone was used as a source of natural hydroxyapatite which was later used for the preparation of a metal grafted catalyst. Calcium phosphate is the main component of fish bone which has a relatively high catalytic activity, good thermal and chemical stability, and can be used for various applications. Magnesium oxide (MgO) was used for grafting due to its high specific surface area. It can be used as the active phase during catalysis which influences the selectivity and activity of catalytic reactions. In the present investigation, the waste fish bone-derived catalysts were characterized in detail and used for the esterification of neem oil (Azadirachta indica). The highest methyl ester yield of 96.7% was obtained at a 1 : 15 oil to methanol ratio, 70 °C reaction temperature and 6 wt% catalyst loading. The catalytic effect on yield and reusability of the catalyst was also studied. Subsequently, a kinetic model was developed and the thermodynamic properties of the process are illustrated. Overall the whole work gives a new direction towards the development of heterogeneous catalysts from bio wastages.

In this work, Al metal ions were doped on natural hydroxyapatite by wet chemical impregnation route. The hydroxyapatite was obtained from waste cooked fish bones after proper treatment. The developed catalyst was characterized. From BET analysis it was found that the surface area and pore volume has increased up to 157.96 m 2 g −1 and 0.8062 mL g −1 after Al doping followed by calcination. The FE-SEM micrographs showed the homogenous porous structure distribution on the surface of the Al doped catalyst. From TGA analysis, it was found that the catalyst was stable up to 1000 °C. A comparison of the developed catalyst with other catalysts reported in literature confirmed the superiority of this catalyst. Doping of Al ion and calcination played a significant role during transesterification of neem ( Azadirachta indica ) oil which was clearly envisaged. The kinetics of transesterification was thoroughly studied at optimal condition, which was found out using response surface methodology. The physical properties of the transesterified product were calculated by following the usual ASTM protocols. The catalyst reusability was also studied.

For the first time, an efficient simultaneous trans/esterification process for biodiesel synthesis from waste goat tallow with considerable free fatty acids (FFAs) content has been explored employing an infrared radiation assisted reactor (IRAR). The impacts of methanol to tallow molar ratio, IRAR temperature and H2SO4 concentration on goat tallow conversion were evaluated by response surface methodology (RSM). Under optimal conditions, 96.7% FFA conversion was achieved within 2.5 h at 59.93 wt.% H2SO4, 69.97 °C IRAR temperature and 31.88:1 methanol to tallow molar ratio. The experimental results were also modeled using artificial neural network (ANN) and marginal improvement in modeling efficiency was observed in comparison with RSM. The infrared radiation strategy could significantly accelerate the conversion process as demonstrated through a substantial reduction in reaction time compared to conventionally heated reactor while providing appreciably high biodiesel yield. Moreover, the in situ water removal using silica-gel adsorbent could also facilitate achieving higher FFA conversion to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Owing to the occurrence of simultaneous transesterification of triglycerides present in goat tallow, overall 98.5 wt.% FAME content was determined at optimal conditions in the product biodiesel which conformed to ASTM and EN biodiesel specifications.