Journal of Applied Sciences and Nanotechnology

Abstract

The depletion of natural resources and the negative impact of oil on the environment have sparked interest in biodiesel as an alternative source of energy. Indigenous vegetable oils have the potential to be used as biodiesel feedstocks. Transesterification of vegetable oils produces biodiesel, which is regulated by numerous inputs factors, such as catalyst dosage, temperature, speed, and time while the density and specific gravity are outputs. Sweet almond (prunusamygdalus dulcis) and jatropha (jatropha curcas) seed oils were used to optimize conditions for the transesterification processes using the response surface methodology (RSM). The experimental matrix at different sodium hydroxide doses (0.3 – 1.5 wt %), intensity (500 – 1000 rpm), and time (20 – 60 min) in the presence of fixed molar ratio, and temperature were designed to optimize the biodiesel output variables (yield, specific gravity, and density).The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed results for refined sweet almond biodiesel (RSAB) at catalyst (0.554 wt %), speed (750 rpm), time (40 min), giving the optimization solution with the specific gravity (0.995 g/cm3), density (1.230 g/cm3) with the yield of 83.304% for RSAB. Whereas the RJB had the optimum catalyst of (0.3 wt %,), speed (500 rpm), time (44.1 min), with the specific gravity (0.964 g/cm3), density (0.884 g/cm3), and the biodiesel yield of 96.4%. The estimated biodiesel yields vary by 13.096% under these reaction conditions. According to ANOVA statistics, the catalyst dose has a substantial effect on biodiesel yields, and these biodiesels could be employed as an environmentally friendly alternative to diesel.