Optimization of biodiesel synthesis from Jojoba oil via supercritical methanol: A response surface methodology approach coupled with genetic algorithm

Abstract

The most powerful approach to processing biodiesel is supercritical methanol transesterification. This process has several benefits over catalytic transesterification in that it produces a substantial biodiesel production in a brief span of time and removes the problems involved with catalyst processing segregation, and filtration. Besides that, the scMeOH transesterification process necessitates harsh operational exposure to extreme reactants pressure and temperature, as well as a significant volume of methanol. The influence of the key selected parameters (reaction temperature, methanol to oil ratio, reaction time, and pressure) on the production of biodiesel through the supercritical methanol transesterification process was studied using response surface methodology (RSM). As a fuel source, high fatty acid Jojoba oil has been utilized and the transesterification reaction was carried out in a pressure reactor within supercritical conditions. The genetic algorithm (GA) has been employed to optimize biodiesel production. The findings demonstrate that the supercritical methanol transesterification process produced the highest biodiesel production (95.67%) at the optimum conditions of 287 °C reaction temperature, 123 bar reaction pressure, 30:1 methanol to oil ratio, and 23 min reaction time.