Natural lime stones were calcined in a muffle furnace at 10008C for 4 h to obtain calcium oxide (CaO) and tested as a solid catalyst for biodiesel production via transesterification of non-edible pongamia oil. Limestone based CaO catalyst was characterized using Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and BraunauerEmmett-Teller (BET) techniques. The effect of transesterification process parameters such as amount of catalyst, methanol to oil molar ratio, reaction time and reaction temperature on biodiesel conversion were investigated. A maximum biodiesel conversion of 97.28% was observed at a methanol to oil ratio of 15:1, catalyst amount of 12 wt %, reaction time of 3 h and reaction temperature of 658C. The structure of the biodiesel was characterized by FTIR and biodiesel conversion was determined by 1 H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( 1 H NMR).
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