Kinetics, modelling and optimization of Shea butter transesterification via clay doped ionic liquid catalyst

•The challenges associated with petrodiesel such as environmental pollution, scarcity and price escalation is been taken care of by biodiesel.•The optimal biodiesel yield of 97.689 % was obtained at 2wt. % catalyst, 6 mol/mol methanol/oil ratio, 2.5 h, 61.4 °C and 400 rpm agitation speed.•ANFIS gave a better biodiesel yield prediction than ANN with an MSE of 0.11167, also LHHW described the CD-IL experimental data better than ER model with an R2 of 0.9992 and a variance of 3.07E-10.•The developed SB biodiesel is cost effective, environmental friendly and a renewable fuel.•There is also need to search for more inedible oil and underutilized biomass for the development of biodiesel and heterogeneous catalyst respectively. Developing a cost effective and sustainable fuel from inedible oils and enhancing transesterification process via heterogeneous catalyst with high selectivity prompted this research. The study focuses on evaluating the kinetics, modelling, and optimization of shea butter biodiesel using a clay-doped ionic liquid catalyst. The catalyst employed in this study offers higher selectivity during transesterification process and high biodiesel yield. The parameters considered were temperature, time, agitation speed, catalyst concentration and methanol/oil ratio, while biodiesel yield was considered the response. A novel heterogeneous clay doped ionic liquid heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel synthesis from shea butter was generated by doping the clay with ionic liquid at a ratio of 2:1 after four hours of calcination at 600 °C. Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Braut Emmet Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were used to evaluate the catalyst's processability. Tranesterification of the shea butter with methanol was carried out to produce biodiesel and glycerol via a clay doped ionic liquid catalyst. Increase in the process parameters significantly affected the yield, with the highest yield of 89.45 % obtained at an agitation of 300rpm while other parameters were kept constant. After optimisation using response surface methodology (RSM), the second-order polynomial model was shown in the ANOVA with R2 values of 0.9952, Adj R2 (0.9862), and Pred R2 (0.8719), demonstrating model acceptability. The maximum biodiesel yield (97.89 %) was obtained with 2wt. % catalyst, 6 mol/mol methanol/oil ratio, 2.5 h, 61.4 °C, and 400rpm agitation. ANFIS predicted biodiesel yield more