ABSTRACT
The research was performed to optimize the production process of biodiesel using a heterogeneous catalyst.Basically, its primary aim includes: to determine the physiochemical properties of both the raw neem seed oil and properties of the obtained biodiesel, to evaluate the effectiveness of a catalyst by carrying out a control experiment, to ascertain the yield of the biodiesel produced etc. Response Surface Methodology using the Box-Behnken model was adopted so as to optimize the process on which four variables affected the biodiesel produced such as: the reaction time, temperature, catalyst loading and methanol-oil ratio. At the end of the experiment it was seen that reaction temperature, methanol-oil ratio, reaction time and catalyst loading all have effect on the yield of biodiesel. Although, reaction time and temperature have the most impact on the yield of biodiesel produced.
The operating process condition at 90mins, 3wt%, 18 mol/mol, 540C and the optimal yield of 72.01% were obtained from the experimental work while the predicted yield from design expert was 72.63% which was almost in line. From the ANOVA statistical analysis, it was observed that the quadratic model was suggested to be the most suitable model that explains the yield. The R-square, predicted R-square and adjusted R-square values of 0.997, 0.9856, 0.9941 respectively was given for the biodiesel response.
