9-41: Synthesis of Biodiesel from Non-Edible Oil and Solid Catalyst

Biodiesel, which has many useful properties such as cetane number, volumetric heating value and flash point, has been used as alternatives of petro-diesel and chemical substitute. Its usage has several advantages, since it may be an eco-friendly, alternative and reversible energy source. Although, biodiesel has become more attractive, the main remaining problem is its production costs. In our previous studies, many factors affect the biodiesel synthesis process such as the free fatty acid and water content of the feedstock, the amount of alcohol, the amount and type of catalyst, the reaction temperature, the mixing strength, and reaction time. In this study, we synthesize the biodiesel from non-edible oil and solid catalyst applying the statistical methodology. For optimization of operation parameters, we applied response surface methodology to delineate the effects of five-level-three-factors and their reciprocal interactions on biodiesel synthesis.