Abstract—The present work deals with the production of biodiesel from the macroalgae Caulerpa peltata and the optimization of the parameters that influence the transesterificationof algal oil into biodiesel using Response Surface Methodology. Algal oil that was obtained from Caulerpa peltata by chloroform and methanol solvent extraction was used for biodiesel production using methanol and sodium hydroxide. The optimization of parameters like oil: alcohol ratio, catalyst amount, time and temperature were done using Design Expert 8.0 Software. It was found that the maximum yield of biodiesel was obtained at 60° C for 1:5, oil: alcohol ratio, 0.3 wt % catalysts in 90 minutes. A total of 30 experiments using Central Composite Design were carried out. The R2, adjusted R2 and Predicted R2 values were 0.9992, 0.9984 and 0.9966 respectively which shows that the experimental values are in good agreement with predicted values.
Index Terms—Algal oil, biodiesel, optimization, response surface methodology, caulerpa peltata.
The authors are with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Sathyabama University, Tamilnadu 600119, India (e-mail: reniriana @gmail.com, Joshua sathyabama university @gmail.com, sivasu1980@gmail.com).
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Cite: A. Annam Renita, D. Joshua Amarnath, and S. Sivasubramanian, "A Study on the Optimization of Algal Biodiesel Reaction Parameters Using Response Surface Methodology,"
International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 311-314, 2012
