Catalyst preparation
The sea sand was sieved (0.42 mm) to remove larger particles, which were crushed and the material passed through the same sieve before being subjected to heat treatment in a furnace to transform the CaCO3 (sand major component) into CaO. The effect of heat treatment on catalyst crystallinity was studied. Three calcination temperatures (700, 800 and 900 °C) were evaluated. The time of calcination was kept constant (2 h) at all treatments.