Valorization of waste Date pits biomass for biodiesel production in presence of green carbon catalyst

Highlights: • Waste Date pits were utilized to produce green catalyst for biodiesel production. • The optimized yield of biodiesel was 91.6% at 65 °C and 9:1 methanol to oil ratio. • Catalyst activity decreases very less upon reusing it up to three runs. • Produced biodiesel possess competent fuel properties as per ASTM and EN standards. - Abstract: In this study, an efficient utilization of waste Date pits biomass for synthesizing green carbon catalyst as well as production of biodiesel were investigated. The green carbon catalyst was modified by KOH and characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM and BET. Taguchi method in Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to study the effect of several process parameters such as reaction temperature, time, catalysts type and methanol to oil ratio, on the yield of the produced biodiesel. The optimized yield obtained was 91.6% when the process temperature was 65 °C, with catalyst type C3 (6 wt% KOH on carbon) within 1 h and with 9:1 methanol to oil ratio. The produced biodiesel was completely characterized in order to verify its quality, compared with the international standards. Fuel properties of the produced biodiesel were found to be a cetane number 60.31, density 881 kg/m³, viscosity 4.24 mm²/s, cloud point 3.9 °C, cold filter plugging point −0.62 °C, pour point −1.4 °C and flash point 141 °C, which lies within the limits specified by the international standards of ASTM and EN. Waste Date pits biomass can be a promising platform for the production of green carbon catalysts as well as biodiesel production.