PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL USING SOYBEAN OIL AND CALCIUM OXIDE AS CATALYST A RESEACH

ABSTRACT This research work focuses on biodiesel production from Soybean oil (Glycine Max) using calcium oxide as a heterogeneous catalyst. The Soybean oil was characterized to ascertain the physicochemical characteristics. Biodiesel was produced via transesterification of soybean oil and meth\ anol using calcium oxide as catalyst. The produced biodiesel was also characterized to determine the physicochemical properties according to ASTM methods and compared to international standards. The effect of the process variables, temperature, catalyst amount and methanol to oil molar ratio on yield was studied. To optimize and statistically analyse the interactions effect of the process variables of the biodiesel production from soybean oil, a five-level-Three factor central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was used. A total of 20 individual experiments were conducted and designed to study reaction temperature, catalyst amount and methanol to oil ratio. The optimal yield of biodiesel from soybean oil was found to be 94.55% under the following conditions; mass ratio of catalyst to oil from 1% to 5%, methanol to soybeanoil molar ratio from 7.5:1 to 10.5:1 , temperature ranged from 40 oC to 60 oC . It could be deduced that soybean oil as a low-cost feed stock heterogeneously catalysed with calcium oxide is suitable for soybean oil biodiesel production and as such could mitigate the cost of raw material for biodiesel production.