The Optimization of Alkali-Catalyzed Biodiesel Production from Camelina sativa Oil Using a Response Surface Methodology

Jie Yang Kenneth

doi:10.4172/2155-9821.1000235

Abstract

Camelina sativa oil is considered a promising feedstock for biodiesel production. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimize camelina biodiesel production by an alkali-catalyzed transesterification process. The effects of independent factors (temperature, time, molar ratio of methanol/oil, and catalyst concentration) on dependent variables (product yield and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield), was investigated. Mathematical regression models were developed for prediction of the biodiesel product yield and FAME yield. The camelina biodiesel product yield (97%) and FAME yield (98.9%) were achieved at the optimal reaction conditions of 38.7°C reaction temperature, 40 min reaction time, 7.7 molar ratio of methanol/oil, and 1.5 wt.% catalyst concentration.

Highlights

Over past decades, the growth of the world population and industrialization has led to an increasing consumption of petro-fuels, resulting in a dramatic decline in petroleum reserves
The quantity and quality of the resulting biodiesel are influenced by a number of variables, mainly including the reaction temperature, reaction time, molar ratio of methanol/oil, and catalyst concentration
The experimental values were data obtained from experiments, and the predicted values were generated from the mathematical regression models

Summary

Introduction

The growth of the world population and industrialization has led to an increasing consumption of petro-fuels, resulting in a dramatic decline in petroleum reserves. From the socioeconomic point of view, the political environment in the greatest oil‐exporting region is unstable as well. These combined factors are driving researchers and industrial practitioners to develop renewable and sustainable fuel alternatives [2]. Biofuels have recently attracted great interest as one of the promising substitutes for petrofuels. It has been estimated that biofuels will make up 80% of the overall liquid fuels growth from 2010 and 2035 in the United States [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion