DOI: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.20456

Ultrasonic-Assisted Transesterification of Tripalmitin Using Limestone-Derived CaO Catalyst

1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia

2Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Nishi 5, Kita 10, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan

Received: 29 Jul 2025; Revised: 22 Sep 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025; Available online: 1 Oct 2025; Published: 26 Dec 2025.
Editor(s): Istadi Istadi
Open Access Copyright (c) 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Abstract

In producing palm oil-based biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters) through the transesterification of triglycerides with methanol, a high-performance and straightforward catalyst is required. This research studies the synthesis and characterization of limestone-derived calcium oxide as a heterogeneous base catalyst for the transesterification of tripalmitin, a representation of palm oil triglycerides, with methanol to produce methyl palmitate. Limestone was calcined at 800 °C to produce CaO. The resulting catalyst was characterized using TGA, XRD, FTIR, SAA, and CO2-TPD. The catalytic performance was compared with that of commercial calcium oxide under optimal reaction conditions, namely 50 °C temperature, 60 min reaction time, and 30 mg catalyst mass. The results showed that limestone-derived CaO produced a higher yield (44.6%) than commercial CaO (32.3%). The kinetics study showed that the reaction followed a two-order pseudo-kinetic model with a reaction rate constant value of 0.1450 L mmol-1 min-1. Overall, limestone-derived CaO proved to be an effective, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly alternative catalyst in the production of triglyceride-based biodiesel. Furthermore, the modification of CaO to enhance the catalytic activity needs to be explored further. Copyright © 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Keywords: Limestone; CaO; Transesterification; Tripalmitin
Funding: Ministry of Higher Education, Sciences and Technology, Republic of Indonesia under contract 2405/UN1/ DITLIT/Dit-Lit/PT.01.03/2025

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Section: Original Research Articles
Language : EN
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