Sustainable Catalytic Production of Biodiesel from Waste Corn Oil: Efficiency Evaluation

Depletion of fossil fuel sources, rising crude oil prices, and stringent emission regulations led to the development of a transesterification process to produce biodiesel as an alternative, sustainable fuel. The reaction conditions were carried out separately under magnetic stirring at 65 °C for 80 min. The results showed the high efficiency of the biodiesel produced by the addition of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) with a viscosity of 0.9273 cSt and a density of 0.850 g mL −1 . The maximum efficiency of the biodiesel produced in terms of cloud point −14 °C, ˂−50 °C, 5 °C, and 5 °C, pour point ˂−50 °C, and surface tension (28.6, 24.8, 23.6, and 23.6 N m −1 ) for biodiesel‐KOH, biodiesel‐ZnONPs, biodiesel‐ZnONPs/3 % ethanol, and biodiesel‐ZnONPs/5 % ethanol, respectively, was determined.