Potentials of biomass waste sources for heterogeneous catalyst production

Abstract

80% of processes in industries in developing countries generally use catalysts, both homogeneous and heterogeneous, derived from biomass. The research aimed to synthesize silica-based heterogeneous catalysts from waste of Sugar palm peel, Pineapple leaf and Orange peel, then carried out characterization of the heterogeneous catalyst used. The method started from the preparation of biomass waste, catalyst characterization including yield of SiO2 in extract, crystallinity, pore size, surface area and catalyst morphology. The yield of SiO2 extract from the Sugar palm peel was 12.281%; Pineapple leaf was 34.131%, and Orange peel was 30.102%. The diffractogram showed that all SiO2 catalyst synthesis had a crystalline phase; The pore size of the catalyst ranged from 3.918 to 5.6512 nm, and the surface area of the catalyst ranged from 14.2137-247 m2 g-1. Morphological test results showed that the catalyst SiO2 extract of Sugar palm peel was composed of small, regular pores while the catalyst SiO2 extract of Pineapple leaf was composed of globular blob, and the catalyst SiO2 extract of Orange peel was composed of very heterogeneous-tight-porous structures. Based on the test results, it is known that the synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts from biomass waste meets the characteristics of standard silica catalysts.