Production & optimization of biodiesel from rubber oil using BBD technique

Abstract With the increase in pollution and the rate at which the conventional fuel sources are being exploited there is a serious need to shift to Renewable energy sources. Biodiesel has become one of the essential fuels in the present and future scenario. Biodiesel can be obtained from both edible and non-edible resources in the world. Biodiesel has nearly 10–11% of oxygen content in it, so it easily burns. Countries like China and India are taking interest for the use of bioethanol and biodiesel. Indian government is giving more emphasis on non-edible sources for biodiesel production. Rubber being a non-edible oil crop can be a potential source for biodiesel production. India state of Kerala have huge rubber plantation and production thus providing the essential raw material for biodiesel production. This work provides the detail of optimization process of biodiesel yield using Box Behnken design technique. Twenty-nine set of experiment have been performed for optimization of the process. The result of the study shows that biodiesel yield of 98.71% is obtained when methanol/oil molar ratio of 12:1, catalyst amount of 0.6 wt% at temperature of 30℃ in 75.31 min.