Facile Synthesis of Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles for the Production of Biodiesel from Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Oil

Abstract This work investigates various aspects of biodiesel production from chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) oil using a NiO nanocatalyst synthesized via the precipitation method. The obtained NiO nanocatalyst was characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDS, and XRD. Spherical NiO nanoparticles had a diameter of around 64.91 nm and higher catalytic activity. The C. arietinum L. has an oil content of 3.25%. Using a 2.5 wt % NiO nanocatalyst was used for 60 min at a 60 °C reaction temperature and a 6:1 alcohol-to-oil ratio, allowing the transesterification reaction of C. arietinum L. oil to yield 83% fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The chemical composition of FAME was determined by analyzing the synthesized biodiesel using the FT-IR and GC-MS methods. GC-MS analysis identified the presence of hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, methyl tetradecanoate, dodecanoic acid methyl ester, and octanoic acid methyl ester. The following fuel properties of C. arietinum L. oil biodiesel were also measured and compared: density (890 kg/m3), kinematic viscosity (3.75 mm2/s), iodine value (118.37 g I2/100 g), acid value (1.88 mg KOH/g), saponification value (198.03 mg KOH/g), boiling point (334 °C), flash point (155 °C), and calorific value (37.50 MJ/kg), most of which are within the specified range of ASTM standards.