Laser-assisted neem oil pre-treatment: A novel pathway for high-efficiency biodiesel production

Biodiesel is popular as an eco-friendly fossil fuel alternative. Neem oil is manufactured from Azadirachta indica seeds. Transesterifying triglycerides with alcohol in the presence of a synthesized CaO nanocatalyst is the most common biodiesel synthesis procedure-recent advances, difficulties, and prospects in laser feedstock pretreatment to boost reactivity and reduce energy use. Oil pre-treatment with a 540-nm green laser is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. This study examined neem oil with and without laser pretreatment for biodiesel synthesis. CaO nanocatalysts were synthesised using Sol-gel and characterised using XRD and SEM. According to catalyst recyclability, the CaO nanocatalyst did not lose activity after five reuses. The CaO nanocatalyst retained 97.7% of its initial activity after five reuses, as confirmed by the small decrease in biodiesel synthesis from 97% to 94.8%. The study went through the optimization of batch-based biodiesel production named as Laser Neem Oil Methyl Ester's (LNOME's) at various process parameters such as reaction temperature (40-70 °C), reaction time (60-150 min), catalyst weight percentage (0.5-1.25 wt%), and methanol-to-oil molar ratio (10-25). Neem oil biodiesel performed best at 50 °C. After 90 min, both feedstocks achieve their maximum FAME conversion rate. The ideal conversion ratio for neem oil biodiesel to methanol was found to be 1:20. Because this process is reversible, the amount of biodiesel converted increases according to the amount of methanol utilized. The neem oil produced 97% Biodiesel when a laser was used, and 94% when it wasn't. Laser processing and sol-gel nanocatalysts are also showcased in this novel work. Combining the efficiency of nanocatalytic processing with environmentally friendly processing methods, this method brings a double breakthrough to the field of reaction chemistry. Due to their reduced reaction time and better yield (97%). Furthermore, the characterization of both the feedstocks and the synthesized biodiesel was determined by using GC-MS, FTIR, and H-NMR. Laser pretreatment shows promising enhancement of conversion efficiency and reduced reaction time, potentially leading to higher-quality biodiesel.