Abstract
This study was aimed at optimizing the yield of transesterification of castor oil methyl ester (COME)
from castor oil using response surface methodology (RSM). RSM was used to analyse and optimize
the operating variables for the transesterification process. Box – Behnken design (BBD) was employed to study the effects of reaction temperature (oC), time (min), catalyst concentration (wt.%) and methanol to oil ratio (v/v) on the yield of COME. A total of 29 experimental runs which were generated by BBD were carried out. The results of RSM analysis indicated that reaction temperature, catalyst concentration and methanol to oil volume ratio were significant variables on the yield of COME. The coefficient of determination obtained (R2 = 0.9713) showed a fitness of a second order model. The interactive effect of catalyst concentration and methanol to oil volume ratio exhibited a positive effect on the COME yield. The optimum conditions for the transesterification reaction based
on the second – order quadratic model was found to be; temperature 46.88oC, reaction time 107.41
min, catalyst concentration 1.03 wt.% and methanol to oil ratio 0.44 v/v. The second order quadratic
model developed provides a statistical approach to predicting the optimum yield of COME.