LAUSR

Abstract The current study examines the efficiency of double metals (Cd and Mn) impregnated montmorillonite clay (Cd-Mn-Mmt) catalyst for the cleaner synthesis of biodiesel from novel non-edible seed oil of Prunus Cerasoides D. Don. (seed oil content 54.5%, and FFA content 0.45 mg KOH/g). X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) and Fourier Transform Infrared Radiation Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used for characterizing the newly synthesized catalyst. The highest (85%) fatty acid methyl ester yield (FAME) of Prunus Cerasoides D. Don. biodiesel was obtained at optimized transesterification reaction conditions; 5 h of reaction time at 120 °C, 12:1 M ratio of methanol to oil and 4% catalyst loading. Synthesized biodiesel was further characterized via FTIR, Gas Chromatography/Mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), and Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR (1H, 13C)). Additionally, the determined fuel properties, such as density (0.8612 kg/L), kinematic viscosity (4.11 mm2/s), flash point (73 °C), cloud point (−9 °C) and pour point (−10 °C), of synthesized biodiesel, agreed with International Standards of China GB/T 20828 (2007), American (ASTM-951, 6751) and European Union (EU-14214). Pseudo-first-order kinetics fitted well with the experimental data (R2 = 0.9172). The study findings recommended that the modified montmorillonite clay catalyst is a cleaner, cheaper, and easy to use along with high stability and catalytic performance in the transesterification process.