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Abstract
Biodiesel is a renewable and alternative source of energy that can minimise the environmental pollution associated with burning of fossil fuels.In this work, optimization of biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas oil was investigated. Biodiesel was produced via base catalyzed transesterification reaction of the oil with methanol. This process was optimized by the application of two-level- four factor (24) factorial design of response surface methodology (RSM) requiring 16 experiments. A linear model of Y= 84.86 + 4.981X1-3.50X2-2.50X3+3.10X4 + 5.13X1X2-0.71X1X4+3.02X2X3 + 0.13X2X4- 2.31X1X2X4 was obtained to predict the yield of biodiesel (Y) as a function of reaction time (X1), KOH catalyst concentration (X2), methanol to oil ratio (X3) and temperature (X4). A modified statistical model comprising of all significant factors obtained by multiple regression predicted that the highest yield of biodiesel was 98.3% with the following optimization rules: X1=2.50h, X2= 1.1% (w/v), X3=3:1and X4= 70oC. Also, there was significant interaction between X1X2 ,X2X3 and X2X4. Gas chromatographic analysis of the JCO biodiesel identified myristate (1.50%) and palmitoleate (98.5%) as the major fatty acid methyl esters. The model has been found to describe the experimental range studied adequately. Keywords: Optimization; Biodiesel; Jatropha curcas oil; Transesterification; Response surface methodology.