Analysis and Optimization of Ultrasound-Assisted Alkaline Palm Oil Transesterification by RSM and ANN-GA

In this study, the effects of ultrasound irradiation on transesterification process and characteristics of the synthesized biodiesel were investigated. The study was divided into two parts. In the first part, response surface methodology (RSM) and Central Composite Design (CCD) were employed to design experiments, develop the regression model, and evaluate individual and interactive impacts of five independent operational variables. The obtained results were then predicted by an optimized artificial neural network-genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) algorithm. The estimated results were compared with the experimental results. In the second part of the work, the impact of ultrasound irradiation on the main characteristics of the synthesized biodiesel was investigated. The analysis of the operating conditions indicated that reaction temperature and MeOH:oil molar ratio were the most important variables on reaction yield. The experimental results showed that there was a change in the main properties of the synthesize...