The study of CaO and MgO heterogenic nano-catalyst coupling on transesterification reaction efficacy in the production of biodiesel from recycled cooking oil

Background: fossil fuels’ pollution and their non-renewability have motivated the search for alternative fuels. somecommon example of seed oils are sunflower oil, date seed oil, soy bean oil. for instance, soy methyl and soy-basedbiodiesel are the main biodiesel. biodiesel is a clean diesel fuel that can be produced through transesterificationreaction. recycled cooking oil, on the other hand, is one of the inexpensive, easily available sources for producingbiodiesel.results: this article is aimed at production of biodiesel via trans-esterification method, nano cao synthesis usingsol-gel method, and nano mgo synthesis using sol-gel self-combustion. two catalysts’ combination affecting thereaction’s efficacy was also discussed. optimum conditions for the reaction in the presence of nano cao are 1.5 %weight fracture, 1:7 alcohol to oil proportion and 6 h in which biodiesel and glycerin (the byproduct) are produced.moreover, the optimum conditions for this reaction in the presence of nano cao and nano mgo mixture are 3 %weight fracture (0.7 g of nano cao and 0.5 g of nano mgo), 1:7 alcohols to oil proportion and 6 h.conclusions: nano mgo is not capable of catalyzing the transesterification by itself, because it has a much weakerbasic affinity but when used with nano cao due to its surface structure, the basic properties increase and itbecomes a proper base for the catalyst so that cao contact surface increases and transesterification reaction yieldsignificantly increases as well. this study investigates the repeatability of transesterification reaction in the presenceof these nano catalysts as well.