An empirical and statistical analysis of biodiesel production by transesterification process

摘要

Despite the fragile bio-fuel market of the present day, numerous research works are being carried out all over the globe to discover a viable alternate source to fossil fuels. In this regard, the present study enumerates the production of methyl esters of Pungamia oil by transesterification process. Also, the parameters influencing biodiesel production such as the stirrer speed, reaction time, and quantity of catalyst were studied and discussed. In this work, sodium methoxide (mixture of sodium hydroxide and methanol) and potassium methoxide (mixture of potassium hydroxide and methanol) gave good conversion yields and high quality of biodiesel during transesterification process. Also, the maximum ester content of biodiesel was witnessed for potassium hydroxide catalyst and the amount of catalyst used was less than that with sodium hydroxide for the same mass of the feedstock oil.