Optimum Biodiesel Production from Ternary Non-Edible Oils Using Doped Snail Shell Catalyst: RSM and ANN as Tools for Modelling

Abstract

Biodiesel is more environmentally friendly than conventional fuel, and it has become crucial as alternate source of fuel in the world we live in today. It can be produced by the transesterification of oil with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. This study optimized the biodiesel production from ternary non-edible oils using catalyst developed from snail shell doped with nickel nitrate and cobalt chloride. The developed catalyst was characterized using Brunauer Emmet Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray fluorescent (XFR) analysis. Biodiesel was produced from the ternary oil blend of waste vegetable oil (WVO), jatropha oil (JO) and neem seed oil (NSO) blended in 80:10:10 ratio and characterized by FFA of 4.7%. Production was carried out using Box-Behken design (BBD) of four input variables. Response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) used in modelling the process and compared to determine their performance. The doped catalyst was characterized with high surface area of 221.02 m²/g and high CaO content of 58.7%, with other oxides such as SO₃, SiO₂, and Al₂O₃ present in significant quantities. RSM and ANN were efficient in the modelling of the process with high R² value of 0.9488 and 0.9827 respectively. Numerical optimization gave optimum biodiesel yield of 98.14 with a methanol/oil ratio of 16:1, catalyst loading of 1.83 wt%, reaction temperature of 70℃, and reaction time of 69 minutes. The properties of biodiesel produced were in conformity with ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards.