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ABSTRACT
In this study, methyl ester (ME) was produced by transesterification of palm oil ( WCO) using Rubber seed shell activated carbon supported calcium oxide derived from eggshell as a solid base catalyst (CaO/RSSAC). Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the effect of reaction time, molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction temperature and catalyst amount on the transesterification process. The design of experiments were performed using four factor-three-level central composite design coupled with response surface methodology to evaluate the interaction between two factors in order to determine the optimum process conditions. A quadratic model was suggested for the prediction of biodiesel yield. The F-value and p-value of the model were 5.37 and 0.0022. The optimum condition for CPO transesterification to methyl ester was obtained at 4 wt.% catalyst amount, 60oC temperature, 16:1 methanol to oil molar ratio and 60 min reaction time giving a yield of 92.45%.
